The ''Risberg School'' in Chicago: American Aid and Swedish Immigrant Ministerial Education, 1885-1916

THE "RISBERG SCHOOL" IN CHICAGO:
AMERICAN AID AND SWEDISH
IMMIGRANT MINISTERIAL EDUCATION,
1885-1916
PHILIP J. ANDERSON
Frederick Jackson Turner made commonplace the notion that to
understand America it is necessary to understand the immigrants.
It has been less evident perhaps that to understand the immigrants
it is necessary to understand their religions. Two decades ago,
Rudolph J. Vecoli observed that ethnicity in American historio­graphy
has been something of a family scandal with skeletons in
the closet; Martin E. Marty extended the image to suggest that
"ethnicity is the skeleton of religion in America because it provides
the supporting framework, the bare outlines or main features, of
American religion."' Though we have learned much about the
pluralistic character of American religion, Marty states in his most
recent book that the greatest conflict has been "between the
original-stock Anglo-Saxon Protestant peoples and 'everyone el­se.'"
2
This reality explains the rich historical themes of nativistic claims
of Protestant hegemony and immigrant struggles with incorpora­tion
and identity. In a more positive way, it also points to the variety
of means and motives by which American aid was offered to
immigrant churches. Since the time of George Stephenson's
Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration (1932), which transcended
traditional denominational historiography, historians have often
generalized about Swedish Americans as either secular or religious,
assuming that the latter were predominantly Augustana Lutheran
and rural in character.3 In the case of the Swedes, however,
American aid in its most generous forms was a later and more
urban phenomenon (though many rural churches benefited), and
did not involve the Augustana Synod but the various Swedish-
American "free church" groups that traced their origins to the
Mission Friend movements of Carl Olof Rosenius (1816-1868) and
Paul Peter Waldenström (1838-1917). These were immigrants who
arrived well after the Civil War, beginning especially in the 1870s
208
and 80s, and whose youthful leaders directed a surging immigrant
stream of young, single, and urban Swedish Americans. The most
poignant and protracted record of aid came from the American
Congregationalists between 1885 and 1916, and was aimed not only
at Swedes, but at Danes, Norwegians, and Germans in an
educational enterprise centered largely at Chicago Theological
Seminary (CTS).4
This study focuses on Fridolf Risberg (1848-1921), who headed
the Swedish Department of CTS and its promotion of a Swedish
Congregational church with confidence in an inevitable assimila­tion
into the American denomination, and on the protest raised by
leaders of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church, such
as David Nyvall (1863-1946), who labored for a more highly
differentiated Swedish-American identity through their own
school, North Park College and Theological Seminary. Adding
complexity to the story is the more independently organized
mission activity of the Free elements in their own congregations
and in Fredrik Franson's Skandinaviska Alliansmissionen (Scandinav­ian
Alliance Mission), founded in 1891, which included Danes and
Norwegians as well. All of these activities centered in Chicago.
More than any other individual, Risberg was connected to all three
of these religious associations. The complex, competitive efforts at
ministerial education in Chicago between 1885 and 1916 demon­strate
the strength of the various free movements in numbers, vying
for relatively limited resources in an intensely Americanized
setting. It also shows a striking degree of pragmatic cooperation
and sporadic attempts at merger where Risberg was clearly the
bridge.
I
Before looking more closely at Risberg, it would be well to
establish the outlines of educational issues among Mission Friends
and the self-understanding of American Congregationalists in their
home mission work with immigrants. The religious awakening that
began in the 1830s in Sweden had a leveling effect on many of the
primary institutions of society. In addition to national educational
reform in the 1840s, the religious folk movements established
several ministerial training schools, such as Peter Fjellstedt's in
Stockholm and P. A. Ahlberg's in Vetlanda. Waldenström's popular
serial allegory Brukspatron Adamsson (Squire Adamsson), published
in 1862-3, made the universities at Uppsala and Lund with their
209
attendant clericalism appear to be "preacher factories." Instead,
the faithful läsare were informed that the best learning came at the
feet of "Mother Simple" and "Father Experience" in the "Misery
Class" rather than from professors "Cocksure" and "Wise-in-His-
Own Conceits" at "Theology College."5
When applied to the children of revival in America and their
itinerant evangelists and pastors, it is little wonder that education in
general, and ministerial training in particular, became noisy fields
of battle. During the 1870s, those Mission Friends who had left
Augustana or the Synod of Northern Illinois to follow their
convictions of non-confessional biblical authority and gathered
believers' churches, organized themselves in free Lutheran synods.
The largest of these, the Mission Synod (1873), was opposed to
schools altogether and never worked to establish one.6 For example,
when Carl Johan Nyvall (1829-1904) visited America in 1876 he
found it odd that the Mission Friends in Lindsborg, Kansas, would
praise Bethany College so highly when the first disciples merely
learned at the school of Jesus.7 The Mission Synod formulated a
statement on ministerial education at Des Moines, Iowa, in January
1880, which read in part:
Fully conscious of the need of a minister to have
essential skills, as for example to read properly and clothe
his thoughts in somewhat orderly phrases . . . we
nevertheless believe that such essential knowledge can be
secured in a less pretentious manner than through
seminaries or whatever they are called; furthermore
because we have found no reference to the establishment
of such schools in the Scriptures . . . [and] since it is
clearly manifest that schools have more destroyed and
hindered than furthered Christian life . . . the meeting
decided that it considered it essential to cease discussing
the matter. . . . And this so much the more since it would
be heartless to impose such a burden [of ministerial
education] upon our friends.8
In contrast, the Ansgar Synod (1874), closer to Augustana in
theology and to the General Synod in its openness to Americaniza­tion,
supported its own school, which had been started the
previous year in Keokuk, Iowa, by its most energetic leader, the
Dane Charles Anderson. Moving to Knoxville, Illinois, in 1875, the
fledgling school struggled for a decade as a result of inadequate
resources and students, as well as the limited strength of the
210
Ansgar Synod in a period of escalating synodical suspicion and
strife. When the school fell into the hands of "Free" iconoclasts like
J. G. Princell (1845-1915) in 1879, the only thing that kept the school
attached to the synod was a legal condition that if the synod
dissolved, the assets of Ansgar College would revert to the city of
Knoxville. Though several pastors were trained at the college, the
school folded when the Ansgar and Mission synods, along with
several independent congregations, merged in Chicago in February
1885 to form the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church.'
The only Covenant school on the horizon was a little independent
immigrant training school in Minneapolis, begun by Erik August
Skogsbergh (1850-1939) in 1884, who was an evangelist and pastor,
not an educator. Moreover, it made no provision for ministerial
training. This school would be taken over by the Covenant in 1891.
The woeful planning for ministerial education by American
Covenanters, partially the result of little liquid capital, did not go
unnoticed by CTS and the American Home Missionary Society
(AHMS). Three representatives, Hugh MacDonald Scott and
Samuel Ives Curtiss of CTS and Frederick E. Emrich of the
Tabernacle Church in Chicago, were present at the Covenant's
organizational meeting to offer immediate assistance through the
expanding foreign work of the seminary. A German department
had been opened in 1882, followed by a Danish-Norwegian
department in 1884. Instruction was also given in Finnish. By the
autumn of 1885 a Swedish department joined the ranks under the
leadership of Fridolf Risberg, fresh from Sweden and hand-picked
by Waldenström and Covenant president C. A. Björk (1837-1916) at
Congregational expense. A Bohemian department was authorized
in 1886 but never materialized.
The Congregational AHMS, a product of the Plan of Union with
Presbyterians in 1801, sought to extend the New England way on
the frontier, intertwining nationalism and religion bolstered by a
romanticized and partly-invented historiography of its Puritan
roots. New Englanders began arriving in Chicago in the 1830s, and
the Chicago Association was formed in 1835 independent of
Presbyterian participation. The first Congregational church was
organized in 1851, and because of a general shortage of ministers in
the Midwest, CTS opened its doors in 1858, perpetuating on the
frontier New England agendas of abolition, Native American
missions, manifest destiny, and the Kingdom of God in America.
211
Swedish Lutherans had had early involvement with the AHMS
in the ministry of Lars Paul Esbjörn, an unhappy experience that
contributed to the formation of the Augustana Synod in 1860. The
Norwegian pastor Paul Andersen had previously received aid in
1848 for his church in Chicago. Esbjörn incurred the wrath of
Gustaf Unonius and others when in 1850 he accepted an annual
stipend of 300 dollars from the AHMS. But Esbjörn himself chafed
while teaching at Illinois State University under the expectations to
submit to Reformed views of regeneration, sacraments, election,
and eternal security, sensing an oppressive form of ecclesiastic
condescension. Eric Norelius wondered how Esbjörn could "throw
himself into the arms of such a thoroughly reformed, puritanical,
and in all respects anti-Lutheran society?"10 Esbjörn, however,
detested the embrace and walked away, sealing for the future
Augustana's attitude toward any encroachment by the Congrega¬
tionalists.
Congregational aid to Swedish Mission Friends represented the
coming together of varying degrees of cultural nativism and a
growing conviction that these people were indeed Congregational¬
ists, but, according to Scott, "there were no Congregationalists in
Sweden to tell them so."1 1 In 1867 the Chicago Association
discussed how to reach immigrants and concluded that "the aim
should be to nationalize them and gather them into our churches,
rather than to establish churches exclusively of foreign elements."12
Levi Cobb, superintendent of the AHMS in Minnesota, asserted in
1878: "To us nothing is plainer than this—that God has sent these
people to our very doors for us to Christianize. We must do it, or they
will make Europeans of us."1 3 The challenge to "Americanize,
Christianize, Congregationalize" was summed up by Curtiss when
he asked, "What have we, orthodox offspring of the pilgrim
fathers, done to teach these children of Luther a more excellent
way?"14
By the mid-1880s this nativism had developed into a rhetorical
tradition justifying aid to Scandinavian free church immigrants
while glossing over inherent doctrinal and ecclesiological differenc­es.
15 The power of this tradition was particularly articulated by
Marcus Whitman Montgomery (1839-1894) in his position as
superintendent of the Scandinavian work of the AHMS, which
included an extended visit to Scandinavia in 1884 and the resulting
enthusiastic report of "spontaneous Congregationalism" entitled A
Wind From the H o l y Spirit in Sweden and Norway (1885).16 The rhetoric
212
of Montgomery, Scott, Curtiss, and others treated the northern
Europeans as different from other immigrants, as "allies with us in
the work of saving America for Christ," in effect making the
Germans and Scandinavians "second-class WASPs"—one in the
cause, but only because they were perceived to be easily assimilat­ed.
1 7 At the same time, it was natural for immigrants to participate
in the American religious institutions that most clearly resembled
their own, and many Swedes initially came to believe the rhetorical
tradition.
Based on his travels, Montgomery concluded that the "Swedish
free churches are purely Congregational" in all respects, despite no
previous contact.18 Even as he rhapsodized about the similarities,
naively confirmed by Waldenström, the nativism directed toward
these "desirable people" was clear:
The information gathered may be summarized thus: The
Scandinavians are, all things considered, among the best
foreigners who come to American shores. . . . They who love
liberty and religion will make the best citizens of this
republic. Just such are the Scandinavians. They are almost
universally Protestants; comparably few are sceptics. They
have been reared to believe in God, the Sabbath, and in
salvation through Christ. They ardently love the principle
upon which our republic rests and hence are intensely
loyal. In politics they are generally Republican. They have
large, strong bodies; are industrious, frugal, eager, apt,
modest, intelligent. Very many American homes are
blessed with the services of Scandinavian girls whose
ways are likely to be honest, quiet, faithful, cleanly, and
pious.
In several respects the Scandinavians are in marked
contrast with some foreign elements among us. They are
not peddlers, nor organ grinders nor beggars; they do not
sell ready-made clothing nor keep pawn-shops; their
religion is not hostile to free institutions; they do not come
here temporarily, and, while seeking for gain, live a
foreign life, praying all the while that their bones may yet
lie in the lands from which they came. . . . This
republic—the hope and aspiration of the world—has
nothing to fear from the Scandinavians, but very much to
gain. After a careful observation of these people in this
land and in their native countries, I am clearly of the
213
opinion that they are more nearly like Americans than any other
foreign peoples. In manners and customs, political and
religious instructions, fertility of adaptation, personal
appearance, and cosmopolitan character, they are strikingly
like native Americans. . . . The first generation of
American-born Scandinavians, when they reach the age of
twenty years, cannot generally be distinguished from
Americans by either appearance, language, or customs.19
Despite the strength of this rhetorical tradition (and many such
examples can be marshalled), leaders at CTS also had a more
pragmatic and pastoral view that because these Scandinavians " in
sympathy with us" needed an educated ministry and had neither
preparatory academies nor seminaries of their own, such an
extension of home mission was worthy and altruistic.20 Through
such benevolence it was hoped that "they will take a warm interest
in our churches and naturally look to us as their American helpers
and friends." Furthermore, added Scott, "we are not slow to take
the hint."21
This then sets the context for Risberg's arrival at CTS in the
autumn of 1885, a world of faith and education that must have
seemed very foreign to him. While the Congregationalists were
quite certain of the qualities that defined an American, such an
identifiable species must have seemed highly illusive through the
eyes of an immigrant. No doubt CTS provided Risberg with a
culture and context that allowed him to be a bridge among Swedish
leaders and groups between 1885 and World War I, three decades
that were the key time for issues of identity, self-differentiation, and
degrees of ethnic consciousness, made all the more pressing by
generational change.
II
Fridolf Risberg was born on 4 November 1848 at Nysätra in the
province of Västerbotten.22 The son of a provincial physician, he
attended Umeå College and Uppsala University, graduating in
1871. After two years working as a tutor for a wealthy family,
Risberg was ordained in Uppsala in December 1874; he then served
as a pastor in various parishes in northern Sweden. Risberg
became increasingly dissatisfied with the state church, and a
significant turning point occurred in 1880 when the itinerant
evangelist Fredrik Franson (1852-1908) held meetings for three
214
Fridolf Risberg, head of t h e S w e d i s h D e p a r t m e n t
of t h e Chicago Theological Seminary, c. 1 8 9 0.
( C o u r t e s y of t h e Covenant Archives and
Historical Library.)
weeks in Härnösand, where Risberg was pastor. He shared his
home with Franson and they formed a permanent friendship,
which in a decade would establish a new alliance in Chicago.23 On
30 April 1882 Risberg preached his farewell sermon in the parish
church of Edsele, thus joining the Mission Covenant Church. A
devout and sensitive man, highly influenced by Waldenström,
Risberg criticized the state church for its rigid confessionalism, its
lack of courage in applying spiritual discipline, and its practices of
membership apart from voluntary signs of regeneration. "It is
almost like serving God and Mammon," preached Risberg. "Two
such different lords I can no longer serve. . . . I have been called to a
work in greater conformity to the word of God."2 4 He claims that
the decision was five years in the making.
Having been secured by Björk and Waldenström in the summer
of 1885, Risberg commenced his teaching at CTS on 9 September
joining what A. C. McGiffert later called a "polyglot seminary"
215
comprised of the various foreign departments. Having studied
Shakespeare at Uppsala, Risberg knew at least some English, but
for some time he conducted his conversations with the faculty in
German. He began with fourteen students. A lifelong bachelor,
these were his family, and of the 313 Swedish students between
1885 and 1916, only one of seven had been born in the United
States, and the average age was twenty-eight.25 John H . Morley of
the AHMS spoke at Risberg's inauguration of the rosy prospects of
assimilation through mission. "America, especially the North­west,"
he said, "is plastic to the touch of Christ," and all foreigners
will be "moulded" by American institutions "so that they should
not be alien to our nation, but homogeneous, no line of cleavage
appearing."26
This ambition was shared by Fridolf Risberg, and his work at CTS
was guided by the conviction that eventual assimilation into the
American church would best serve the needs of the Swedish
Mission Friends. In 1892 he wrote:
My opinion is that every European who makes this land
his home should think from the very beginning that he is
to become a good American. The English language must
in time become our mother tongue. In the future, then,
our preaching must be in English. Then certainly our
churches may coalesce with the American. However, for
the near future Swedish must be the chief language
among us. It is because the training of Swedish preachers
among Americans has a future before it that I willingly
labor in this seminary.27
Risberg formally joined the Congregational Church in 1894.
The work of CTS with the Scandinavian free churches was
complicated by the fact that the Covenant Church was a new
denomination, and the issue of control over its students had never
been resolved, leading to years of misunderstanding. The first
annual meeting of the Covenant in Princeton, Illinois, in September
1885, directed specific questions to CTS regarding admission, the
relationship of students to Swedish congregations, and the nature
of Risberg's connection to the seminary, though a committee of
Covenant leaders had been meeting with him to screen ministerial
candidates.
In time, a partial solution was reached as the Covenant provided
money to pay for an assistant to Risberg, pushed by Björk as he
remained adamant that the Swedes should not have their own
216
school. This person was David Nyvall, who arrived in the fall of
1888. After his emigration from Sweden in 1886, Nyvall had taught
at Skogsbergh's school in Minneapolis and served a congregation
in Sioux City, Iowa. Having passed his pre-medical examinations at
Uppsala and begun his medical studies at the Carolinian Institute
in Stockholm, Nyvall was thoroughly at home in the rigorous
academic climate of CTS.28 He later described his time with Risberg
as "two of the most delightful years of my life."2 9 By 1889 there
were forty students enrolled in the Swedish department's four-year
program (much larger than the other foreign departments), and
though they were housed separately from the American students—
because of their inferior learning—Scott once defended them by
saying to all the students: "You American boys with your degrees
need not look down on these Swedish lads; I will be satisfied if you
know as much about the Bible when you finish here as these
fellows knew when they were confirmed in Sweden at the age of
fifteen years."80
Nyvall, however, vigorously disagreed with Risberg's views of
Americanization, saying that " i n all things personal Risberg and I
were one, but in school matters and in matters of denominational
interests we did not agree."31For reasons that we shall see, Nyvall's
role in the stormy discussions of schools and possible mergers led
to the conviction that the Covenant needed its own school if the
denomination was to have a future and if Swedish-American
people were to shape their own cultural and religious lives. In
reference to CTS and ministerial education, Nyvall wondered how
the Covenant could assume responsibility "simply by watching
with others at the entrance while the Seminary alone stood watch
over the exit." In April 1890, Nyvall tendered his resignation "to be
free to work for a Covenant school."3 2 Covenant leaders, however,
were reluctant to sever connections with CTS (Björk was still
somewhat suspicious of education and cautious about grass-roots
perceptions), so Magnus E. Peterson (1850-1940) was called from
Stromsburg, Nebraska, to succeed Nyvall in 1890, and together he
labored with Risberg until the department, called the Swedish
Institute after 1903, closed in 1916.33
Nyvall must have been deeply affected by the experience of Peter
Christian Trandberg (1832-1896), who was the instructor in the
Danish-Norwegian department from its opening in 1884 until his
termination by CTS in 1890. He was fifty when he emigrated from
Denmark, a graduate of the University of Copenhagen and
217
D a v i d Nyvall, president of N o r t h Park College, 1901.
( C o u r t e s y of t h e C o v e n a n t A r c h i v e s a n d Historical
L i b r a r y . )
converted by the writings of Kierkegaard. Trandberg was a devout
"free Lutheran," and had received from Montgomery "permission
to hold fast to Lutheran interpretation."34 A controversy arose
when Trandberg learned that Congregationalists were being told
that he was at CTS to protect it and his students from Lutheran
influences. Trandberg had formed several free Lutheran congrega­tions
in Chicago and countered publicly that he "heartily adhere[s]
to the Lutheran view of the mysteries of salvation." Perhaps
reminiscent of Esbjörn, he accused CTS of "blatant sheep-stealing,"
and Montgomery of buying converts by offering aid to
students and churches.35 He was fired. Trandberg was followed by
Reinert Jernberg, a graduate of both Yale and CTS, and an ardent
assimilationist and Congregationalist known for his caustic attacks
on Lutheranism. While Nyvall did not share in Trandberg's
evangelistic millenarianism, he did identify with his free Lutheran
stand in a Calvinistic enclave and the critique that similarities in
polity do not make for common ecclesiologies.
218
The years 1889 to 1891 were crucial for future alignments among
the Scandinavian free churches and the place that Congregational
aid might have. Waldenström visited America in 1889, merger
discussions and the dismissal of Trandberg and the resignation of
Nyvall occurred in 1890, and a Covenant school as well as
Franson's Scandinavian Alliance Mission (SAM) were formed in
1891. In the midst of this organizational activity, it became more
clear that Congregationalist hopes would be limited by the
self-determinitive actions of the Scandinavians themselves, pro­ducing
either, on one hand, intentional denominational commit­ments
(the Covenant) or, on the other, more amorphous associa¬
tional activity (SAM), across whose spectrum people moved freely
and where schools became the key symbols of a potentially greater
cooperation. It was here that the low-profiled and unassuming
Fridolf Risberg became a tenuous link between all.
FL
What were the ambitions of the Congregationalists? On the basis
of the rhetorical tradition, it is tempting to see assimilation and
absorption of the Scandinavian free churches as the goal. Congre­gational
leaders had made this quite clear. If one reads more
closely, however, it is equally clear that the overriding concern was
the Protestant establishment in America, which had become
embattled by many forces, especially "foreign" Roman Catholicism
being by far the largest religious group in America. They diligently
sought alliances with Protestant immigrants, and were quite happy
to allow ethnic groups to establish their own denominations. In
1886, for example, Montgomery wrote that "organic unity between
Congregationalists and Mission Swedes is not desired by either
party, but Christian fellowship between them grows with mutual
acquaintance."36
It should not be surprising, then, that in response to this,
Covenant leaders developed a rhetorical tradition of their own that
became widely promoted in the press and among the people. The
Congregationalists sent many mixed messages rooted in their
nativism. This is well illustrated by the one effort at joint
denominational affiliation in 1889-90. At the triennial Congrega­tional
National Council meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the
fall of 1889, a "fraternal overture" was made to the Covenant.
Sensing the Covenant's sensitivity about assimilation, the resolu-
219
tion added that the church should "retain their present name and
organization, and carry on the work in their own language and
methods, and send delegates to the National Council." In reference
to financial support of ministers and churches, it was stated that
"this aid is not given for the purpose of making Congregationalists
of them."3 7 Moreover, Waldenström was then making his first tour
of America, had received an honorary doctorate at Yale, and was
well known for his support of affiliation with the Congregational­ists,
though he feared the liberalizing tendencies of Americaniza­tion.
Even as the Covenant emphatically refused the proposal,
Waldenström wrote: "It would be a joy if all the Swedish Free
churches would unite in a Swedish Association, and then this
Association, as such, join the Congregationalists. But as the
situation is at present, it may be best to have patience."36
David Nyvall and Axel Mellander, who in 1892 became dean of
the Covenant school, anticipated the Covenant's rejection of the
overture. In January 1890 Mellander wrote in Missions-Vännen that
the freedom of the Covenant "cannot be sold either for Congrega­tional
favors or American bribes." A week later, Nyvall added: "We
shall not be assimilated because we shall not be Americanized. By
making the best of what we now are, we can best educate the
[Swedish] nation in America. . . . If we are good Swedes (in an
apolitical sense), we are good Americans."39 The same week,
Montgomery wrote in exasperation: "Some of their leaders are as
blind . . . as the ostrich with her head in the sand. They bitterly
oppose Americanizing influences. As well might they strive against
the rising of tomorrow's sun. They will succeed only in extinguish­ing
themselves."40 In a similar vein, Scott wrote to Montgomery
stating that should Nyvall wish to return to CTS he would have to
promise to "act loyally with us and at least cease all attacks on us....
To give some men rope enough means self-hanging."41
The proposal was formally rejected by the Covenant's executive
board at a joint meeting with the Congregationalists on 4-5
February 1890, at the Pacific Hotel in Chicago. The reasons given
demonstrate the rhetorical tradition emerging in the Covenant,
namely, Nyvall's concern for denominational identity and Swe­dish-
American ethnic consciousness, and Mellander's fear of
theological liberalism and social laxity. It is obvious that both sides
misunderstood each other's intentions, but both had given ample
cause for so doing. A n embittered Joseph B. Clark, secretary of the
AHMS, believed that the Covenant's delegates to the meeting were
220
not fully representative, and complained in a letter to Montgomery
"that they could not probably manage the team which they assume
to be driving. . . . let the Förbundet go to the grass or to the grave. I
guess it does not matter much which."42
The Congregational leaders had good reason to wonder about the
Covenant's central leadership, though they totally misread the
internal divisions among the Scandinavian free churches. By 1890
the AHMS had aided numerous churches in the New England
states, and in December of that year the Eastern Missionary
Association (EMA) formed in Worcester, Massachusetts, along
regional lines similar to what had been proposed nationally.
Though the EMA merged solely with the Covenant in 1921, these
churches were in effect Covenant all along (though known as
Swedish Congregational) with clergy trained largely at Risberg's
school.
By the turn of the century, there were over a hundred Swedish
Congregational churches with some 5,000 members concentrated
Faculty and s t u d e n t s at t h e Chicago Theological
S e m i n a r y , 1 8 9 0 . Fridolf R i s b e r g center left, D a v id
Nyvall, center right. ( C o u r t e s y of t h e Covenant
A r c h i v e s a n d Historical Library.)
221
most heavily in New England and areas of Minnesota and
Wisconsin.43 In the East, this dual affiliation persisted for decades
in local congregations, whereas in the Northwest, a separate
Swedish Congregational association of churches and pastors
existed from 1898 until its merger with the Covenant's Northwest­ern
Missionary Association (1884) in 1918. It is both surprising and
revealing that there were few Swedish Congregational churches in
Illinois, and only one small congregation in Chicago (which moved
many times, and in 1905 had only sixty members), and four in the
suburbs.44 Thus the influence of the AHMS and CTS had virtually
no impact in areas where the Covenant was strongest. Churches in
the East were founded at least a decade later, were more urban and
separated geographically from church politics in Chicago, and were
in close proximity to New England history and culture, as well as to
theological schools at New Haven, Hartford, and Boston.
As the relationship between Congregationalists and the Swedish
Mission Friends changed after 1890, the place of Fridolf Risberg,
relatively quiet up to this point, came into greater prominence.
Even then, in the absence of his papers, we know most about him
from others and by his actions. Though not a Congregationalist
himself until 1894, Risberg was the symbol of Swedish Congrega­tionalism.
At the same time, his close ties to the Covenant were
evidenced by his declining the invitation to become president of the
new Covenant school in Minneapolis in 1892—thus giving the
opportunity to Nyvall. Of even more importance, however, was
Risberg's connection to a third group, which he most personally
identified with, namely the mission activities associated with
Fredrik Franson's Scandinavian Alliance Mission (SAM), in direct
competition with Covenant missionary activity.
Franson's mission was organized in 1891, the year after the
Covenant sent its first missionary to China and Franson began
mobilizing young people, "without reference to their affiliation,"
to go to China and elsewhere.45 Risberg moved, therefore,
markedly away from the Covenant after 1891, at the same time that
he was the most visible proponent of Americanization among the
Swedes and deeply involved with the more radical Scandinavian
Free congregations in the alliance mission. Since his friend Franson
was the traveling carpetbagger, Risberg, as secretary, ran the SAM
from his office at CTS, a position he held until his death in 1921. In
effect, he was the director. Because of these connections, the
churches in the East supported the SAM rather than Covenant
222
missions, a most uncomfortable development. Though Nyvall
admired Risberg and prized his friendship, he wrote in 1930 that all
Covenant "hardships" with the Swedish Congregationalists were
"symbolized in the personal factor of Risberg." Because of him, it
was possible for many churches in these groups to be "separated
yet federated in spirit."4 6
These complex relationships, however, were not to be played out
on the level of church mergers. Rather, it was in a series of attempts
to unite schools representing the Covenant, the Swedish Congrega­tionalists,
and the Free, that show the different perspectives on
mission, institutions, assimilation, and ethnic consciousness and
boundaries. It can be argued that in these relationships one can see
the stronger role of urban networks and institutions when
compared to older rural environments. It may also be asserted that
groups rooted in revival and the folk movements in opposition to
the Swedish state church could more readily adapt to the
competitive American environment of religious pluralism and
voluntarism.
The Covenant school moved to Chicago in 1894, became known
as North Park and entered into more direct competition with CTS,
though it was unable to offer comparable aid to students studying
for Covenant ministry. Young immigrants were poor and CTS
attracted many of these students and often continued the aid as
they went on to serve Swedish Congregational churches. A sizable
number, however, remained with Covenant congregations. The
Swedish Free churches began their own school in Chicago in 1901
under the leadership of Princell, which always struggled, moved
for a time to Minneapolis and Franconia, Minnesota, and finally
returned to Chicago—affiliated loosely with Moody Bible Institute.
Nyvall said that whereas the Mission Friends should have been
united, they "were now divided not only in two organizations, as at
the onset, but in partes tres, to borrow from Caesar, a division
accentuated by the three schools serving practically the same
constituency."4' Consequently, all three schools struggled with
limited resources and students.
The lengthy merger discussions between 1902 and 1911 consis­tently
encountered two differing convictions. First, the Covenant
and North Park, concerned for an emerging identity as a Swedish-
American church, wished only to absorb Risberg's school into its
existing seminary program. Because of historic differences and the
Free's antidenominational spirit, North Park wanted nothing to do
223
with Princell's school. Second, leaders at CTS worked diligently for
a new union of the three schools. Amid the talk, meetings, and
correspondence, there was little hope of bridging these differences,
despite the universal admiration of Risberg personally and symboli­cally.
Nyvall proposed in 1902 the transfer of the Swedish department
at CTS to North Park. In a lengthy reply, Scott and Curtiss refused
the offer, no doubt with memories of Nyvall's "disloyalty" a
decade before, and proposed instead a new "Union Theological
Seminary" of the three schools under Congregational auspices,
where North Park would provide undergraduate preparation in its
college.48 This same scenario was repeated in 1906 when representa­tives
from the three schools convened at the Oak Street Mission in
Chicago.49 By early 1907 the discussions had died.5 0 The Covenant
was now over two decades old, more secure in its prospects of
moving into the second generation, and more firm in its prejudices,
especially since the publication of Mellander's stinging attack on
the Congregationalists in 1900, Betänkande i kongregationalist-frågan
(Thoughts On the Congregationalist Question).
Two events in 1908 portray vividly the hopes and disappoint­ments
born of deep division. In the North Park archives is a silver
loving cup with three unusual handles, presented to Risberg on his
sixtieth birthday in 1908 by the graduates of his school at CTS.
Algoth Ohlson, a graduate in 1907 and later president of North Park
(1924-1949), remembered:
The presentation of the gift, as I recall it, took place on a
festive occasion where there were a large number of
people present, representatives of the three Swedish
theological seminaries in Chicago. . . . During the program
someone suggested that one representative of each school
should grasp a handle of the cup simultaneously while
someone else led in prayer for harmonious cooperation
and possible future consolidation. . . . So far as I know,
this ceremony was never repeated; nor was there any deep
feeling of symbolic meaning in the first and only expres­sion
of it.51
Also in 1908, the loose association of Free congregations
organized itself in Minneapolis as a denomination, the Swedish
Evangelical Free Church. Princell, who was present, protested that
a mission association should not have the word "church" in its
name, that such an organization was premature. He wanted room
224
for independent congregations, yet he too harbored hope for a
merging of all three groups. His passionate speech to the delegates
was not recorded in the minutes, but in it he said: "In order that a
kettle shall be able to stand up straight, it must have at least three
legs. And we ought to wait in adopting the name 'Free church' until
the kettle has three legs to stand on. And you know what they are:
the Covenant, the Free, and the Congregationalists. For it is evident
that they will become one if we wait a little."5 2
The final discussions occurred between September 1910 and May
1911. With Nyvall away from North Park in voluntary exile between
1905 and 1912, the EMA had passed a resolution in Brockton,
Massachusetts, to revive the idea of a union of the three theological
schools. The North Park board endorsed it, renewing the proviso
that Risberg's school should be transferred to North Park, and that
he would be invited to become president. The Free church school
was not mentioned. E. G. Hjerpe, the new president of the
Covenant, conveyed this on 29 March 1911 to Ozora Stearns Davis,
president of CTS since 1908 and concerned to find a permanent
solution to the now outdated foreign institutes. Davis insisted in his
reply that it be a union of three schools in order to "promote the
union of three bodies." And while Chicago Covenant pastors had
written to Davis saying that "Risberg commends the highest
respect of our people and possesses] such sterling qualities and
thorough learning and experience that would make him an ideal
President for such a school,"5 3 Davis countered that Risberg was
too old to change positions and "not fitted" to be president of
North Park, only the dean of a seminary. When the boards of North
Park and CTS met together on 6 May 1911, tempers flared and the
stalemate continued. Davis finally concluded "that the obstacles in
the way of union are so many and so great that for the present it is
impossible."54 It was never brought up again.
The Danish-Norwegian Institute closed in 1913 and, upon
Risberg's retirement in 1916, so did the Swedish Institute. Nyvall
paid tribute to Risberg by saying that his "ability, and the
confidence he inspired, kept his school going long after it had
ceased to be necessary or even helpful to its original purpose of
training ministers for the Mission Friends." By the early 1890s, and
certainly by the turn of the century, Risberg's school "had no
purpose of its own" since most of its graduates "associated
themselves with the Covenant."55
225
rv
What is interesting in this history of American aid is not so much
the Congregationalists' desire to incorporate a significant section of
the Swedish-American people, which may easily be overstated, but
how the various Mission Friend groups responded to the overtures.
On one hand, the distinctives that divided the Covenant, the Free,
the Swedish Congregationalists, and the independents, come into
sharp focus. On the other hand, one can also see the development
of a pan-ethnic "mission" identity that embraced all the Scandin­avian
free churches and fostered cooperation and hopes for merger,
driven by religion and held together by ethnicity. The challenge was
to steer between the Scylla of assimilation without tradition and the
Charybdis of tradition without assimilation.
The divisions, however, were products both of religion and
ethnicity. Among the Swedish Congregationalists was an uncritical
accommodation to the American world of Reformed theology and
culture, while remaining essentially Swedish and free Lutheran.
Among the Free churches was a far more sectarian view of religion
and life, and an almost total disregard for ethnic distinctives, while
accommodating almost fully to Anglo-American theologies and
methods of revivalism and culture, essentially Reformed and
dispensational. Among Covenant leaders was a distinctive articula­tion
of an emerging Swedish-American consciousness as an ethnic
group, and a concern for institutional completeness, sensitive to the
intergenerational challenges of immigrant life, not sectarian but
rooted in the inheritances of the Old and New worlds. It is
especially interesting that the clashing of rhetorical traditions
between Congregationalists and Covenanters was partly based on
invented histories, celebrating the Anglo-American destiny
through colonial Puritanism, and the Swedish-American con­sciousness
through Viking history and a retention of Scandinavian
language and culture.
To adopt language from family systems theory, on matters of
ethnicity David Nyvall was a highly "differentiated" leader within
the Covenant, meaning "the capacity of a family member to define
his or her own life's goals and values apart from surrounding
togetherness pressures, to say T when others are demanding 'you'
and 'we.'" It means "the capacity to be an T while remaining
connected" to the larger group, to be a non-anxious presence in the
226
midst of anxious systems.56 In ethnic terms, the leadership of
Risberg among the Congregationalists and Princell among the Free
was far less differentiated because the emphasis was more strongly
on Americanization and less on generational ethnicity.
Another way to look at this would be to use John Higham's
leadership types.57 According to Higham, "leaders focus the
consciousness of an ethnic group and in doing so make its identity
visible." Of the three types of leader (received, internal, and
progressive), the Mission Friend movement in general was too new
and varied to produce "received" leaders, where one made
traditional claims upon the group. Nyvall probably came closest to
this. Rather, the voluntary nature of these groups meant that
leaders were either "internal," who arose from within the group,
remained there, and addressed the external world as its representa­tive
and advocate; or they were "projective," who came from the
group but acquired a following outside the group, thus affecting its
reputation without being directly subject to its control. Though
Risberg gave much of his energy to free Scandinavian causes across
the spectrum (thus appearing as an "internal" leader), his role at
CTS and his views of Americanization made him symbolically a
"projective" leader among Swedish Americans. Nyvall, on the
contrary, was firmly an "internal" leader, necessary to self-conscious
and self-activating bodies because these leaders helped
build psychological and economic security. The role of the
Covenant and North Park in the merger discussions was consistent
with this pattern. Had Risberg been more aggressive and activistic
as a leader, this advocate of American unity perhaps could have
built more of the bridges he symbolically represented.
The entire story is a test case of generational themes. Princell's
school, today's Trinity College and Evangelical Divinity School
(affiliated with the merger of the Swedish and Danish-Norwegian
Free churches in 1950), has no conscious tie to an ethnic heritage.
Risberg's school at CTS closed when he retired in 1916, and
Swedish Congregationalism ceased all official forms by 1921. But
North Park, according to Nyvall, "was built right, and [withstood,
therefore, the test of the storm."6 8 It survived without him, and
throughout its history has seriously addressed issues of denomina­tional
identity and Swedish-American culture and consciousness
in its urban and richly multiethnic setting.
227
NOTES
'Rudolph J. Vecoli, "Ethnicity: A Neglected Dimension of American History," in
Herbert J. Bass, ed., The S t a t e of A m e r i c a n H i s t o r y (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1970), esp.
70ff; Martin E. Marty, "Ethnicity: The Skeleton of Religion in America," Church
H i s t o r y 41 (1972), 9.
2Martin E. Marty, M o d e m A m e r i c a n R e l i g i o n , Volume 2: The N o i s e of Conflict, 1919-1941
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 2.
3George M. Stephenson, The R e l i g i o u s Aspects of S w e d i s h I m m i g r a t i o n : A S t u d y of
I m m i g r a n t Churches (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1932), p a s s i m.
4For the Scandinavian departments at Chicago Theological Seminary, see Robert M .
Anderson, " A n Analysis of Congregational Aid to Scandinavian Churches," B.D.
thesis, North Park Theological Seminary, 1960; P. Richard Lindstrom, "The Risberg
School," B.D. thesis, North Park Theological Seminary, 1966; Frederick Hale, "The
Scandinavian Departments of Chicago Theological Seminary," M.A. thesis, Univer­sity
of Minnesota, 1974; and Hale, T r a n s - A t l a n t i c C o n s e r v a t i v e Protestantism in t he
E v a n g e l i c a l Free and M i s s i o n C o v e n a n t Traditions (New York: Arno Press, 1979), chaps.
9-10.
5P. P. Waldenström, B r u k s p a t r o n A d a m s s o n . E l l e r h v a r bor du? (Stockholm, 1863). The
novel was first published serially in Stadsmissionären (The City Missionary) in
Stockholm. This was translated into English in 1928 to support Swedish-American
fundamentalists in their heresy charges directed against Nils Lund, dean of North
Park Theological Seminary, for his alleged modernism (Squire A d a m s s o n : Or, W h e re
Do You L i v e ? , Ruben T. Nygren, trans. [Chicago: Mission Friend Publishing
Company, 1928]). Most Mission Friends missed the irony in Waldenström's
hyperbolic allegory, who was a Ph.D. in classics from Uppsala University.
"Though many Mission Friend pastors had attended training schools in Sweden,
most shared the judgment that "the pioneers were uneducated men and women.
They did not consider an education essential to a successful career in the ministry.
Most of them were self-made men, gifted and useful in that early generation" (A. H .
Jacobson, The A d v e n t u r e s of a P r a i r i e Preacher [Chicago: Covenant Press, 1960], 34).
'C. J. Nyvall, Travel M e m o r i e s f r o m A m e r i c a (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1959), 54f.
'Missions-Vännen, Feb. 1880, 47f. For a discussion of this theme, see Richard
Hofstadter, A n t i - I n t e l l e c t u a l i s m i n A m e r i c a n Life (New York: Vantage Books, 1962).
"See C. V. Bowman, "Ansgarius College," S w e d i s h - A m e r i c a n Historical Bulletin 2
(1929), 19-30.
1 "Quoted in Stephenson, R e l i g i o u s Aspects of S w e d i s h I m m i g r a t i o n , 162f.
" H . M. Scott, A M i n i s t r y for Foreign Bom A m e r i c a (Hartford, Conn.: Hartford
Seminary Press, 1907), 46. For a history of the American Home Missionary Society,
see C. B. Goodykoontz, H o m e M i s s i o n s on t h e A m e r i c a n F r o n t i e r : With P a r t i c u l ar
Reference to t h e A m e r i c a n H o m e M i s s i o n a r y Society (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers,
1939). The Scandinavian work receives no attention in this study.
"Quoted in Matthew Spinka, ed., A H i s t o r y of I l l i n o i s C o n g r e g a t i o n a l and C h r i s t i an
Churches (Chicago: Congregational and Christian Conference of Illinois, 1944), 284.
"The Home M i s s i o n a r y 51 (Dec. 1878), 187.
"Quoted in A. C. McGiffert, N o I v o r y Tower: The S t o r y of t h e C h i c a g o Theological
S e m i n a r y (Chicago: Chicago Theological Seminary, 1965), 59.
"This rhetorical tradition is developed in Hale, "Scandinavian Departments," esp.
62ff. Future problems were anticipated in 1884, however, when the Congregational
Club of Minnesota held a symposium entitled "Norwegians, Swedes, and Their
Denominations," where the speakers Sven Oftedal, professor at Augsburg
Seminary, and George Wiberg, Ansgar Synod pastor from Worcester, Massachusetts
(who became a staunch ally to the work of Risberg at CTS and was employed by the
AHMS), predicted inevitable conflict over doctrinal issues.
228
16For the crucial role of Montgomery, see Hale, Trans-Atlantic Conservative Protestant­ism,
215-55.
" M . W. Montgomery, speech to the Congregational Association of Minnesota,
reported in T h e P i l g r i m (Oct. 1885). This was a defense of Protestant America against
foreign perils ennumerated by Josiah Strong and the Evangelical Alliance. See
Robert T. Handy, A C h r i s t i a n A m e r i c a : Protestant Hopes a n d Historical Realities (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1984), esp. 57-81. On Scandinavians as "second-class
WASPs," see Charles H. Anderson, White Protestant A m e r i c a n s : F r o m National O r i g i ns
to Religious Group (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971), 43ff.
1 8M. W. Montgomery, "The Free Church Movement in Sweden," T h e A n d o v e r Review
2 (1884), 411.
1 9M. W. Montgomery, " A Wind F r o m the H o l y S p i r i t " in S w e d e n a n d N o r w a y (New
York: American Home Missionary Society, 1884), 6f. Montgomery wildly estimated
that half the population of Sweden was Lutheran while the rest were oriented
toward the free churches; in fact, approximately 300,000 were part of the Mission
Friend movement.
' " M i n u t e s of t h e Tenth Triennial C o n v e n t i o n H e l d i n Chicago, A p r i l 2 2 , 1 8 8 5 , in C o n n e c t i on
with the C h i c a g o Theological Seminary (Chicago, 1885).
2 ,"The Report of Professor H. M. Scott to the Triennial Convention of the Chicago
Theological Seminary, April 22, 1885," in Lindström, "The Risberg School," 97.
Lindstrom prints this most interesting status report in its entirety as an appendix
(85-97), outlining the origins and work of each foreign department at CTS.
Montgomery gave three reasons for the ambivalence of Mission Friends toward
education: "(1) the deeply religious nature of the Scandinavians, which cares more
for religion than culture; (2) the prejudice among these Free Church people against
education, which has grown out of the unspiritual teachings and the harsh
persecutions of the Lutheran State Church preachers, who are all educated; and (3)
the revival prevailing among them makes them feel that the gospel messenger must
not wait for the slow processes of a thorough education. Hence these young men are
willing to overleap the college, and sometimes even the academy, and flock to the
theological school," not nearly as prepared as American students (M. W.
Montgomery, T h e Work A m o n g the S c a n d i n a v i a n s , I n c l u d i n g the Swedes, Danes, and
N o r w e g i a n s [New York: American Home Missionary Society, 1888], 11).
"There is little biographical information on Risberg apart from his brief autobio­graphy
Strödda m i n n e n från mitt flydda liv (Chicago: Missions-Vännen Bokförlag,
1916). His personal papers are not extant.
" O . C. Grauer, F r e d r i c k F r a n s o n : F o u n d e r of t h e S c a n d i n a v i a n A l l i a n c e M i s s i o n (Chicago:
Scandinavian Alliance Mission, n.d.), 36.
"Fridolf Risberg, Afskedspredikan på tredje söndagen efter påsk den 30 A p r i l 1882
(Härnösand, 1883), as quoted by Karl A. Olsson, B y O n e Spirit (Chicago: Covenant
Press, 1962), 734.
"McGiffert, N o I v o r y Tower, 66. For a listing of the students, chronological and
alphabetical, see Lindstrom, "The Risberg School," 128-67. Risberg gave his own
analysis of the students, Strödda m i n n e n , 132f. The board of CTS followed the
following criteria in calling Risberg: (1) spiritual, doctrinally sound, inspiring
confidence; (2) some knowledge of English; (3) skill in practical theology; (4) ability
to teach Swedish homiletics and church history; and (5) a good preacher and
example of godliness to the students. Covenant Yearbook (1885), 14f.
26John H. Morley, "Charge to Professor Fridolph Rissberg [sic]," TS, Chicago
Theological Seminary Library, 3, as quoted by Hale, "Scandinavian Departments,"
99.
"Quoted in M. W. Montgomery, "Scandinavian Department," T h e H o m e M i s s i o n a r y
65 (1892), 70.
229
2BFor Nyvall as educator, see Philip J. Anderson, "David Nyvall and Swedish-
American Education," in Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck, eds., S w e d i s h - A m e r i c an
Life i n C h i c a g o : C u l t u r a l a n d U r b a n Aspects of a n I m m i g r a n t People, 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 3 0 (Urbana
and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991).
2 9David Nyvall, "Dreams That Came True," Cupola (North Park College Yearbook),
1923, 33.
"Interview with Joel Fridfelt by P. Richard Anderson, May 1966, in Lindstrom, "The
Risberg School," 55f.
3'Nyvall, "Dreams That Came True," 33.
3 2David Nyvall, T h e S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s : A H i s t o r y (Chicago: Covenant Book
Concern, 1930), 72ff. In this book, Nyvall commented extensively on his relationship
to Risberg, whose character and teaching abilities he deeply admired. Nyvall
described Risberg's generational views (75):
He was a staunch believer in the prompt Americanization of the Swedish
Mission Friends and he used to say that he was certain of two things, and
somewhat uncertain as to a third. He was sure that the Mission Friends of the
first generation would never consent to any scheme of Americanization. He
was equally sure that the third generation of the Mission Friends would be
Americanized as a matter of course. He was not sure whether the Americani­zation
would take effect already in the second generation. With this opinion as
to the future it is natural that he could not take a very enthusiastic view of the
Covenant plan.
For a recent study of generational theory, see Peter Kivisto and Dag Blanck, eds.,
A m e r i c a n I m m i g r a n t s a n d T h e i r G e n e r a t i o n s : S t u d i e s a n d C o m m e n t a r i e s on t h e H a n s en
T h e s i s after Fifty Years (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990).
"Half of Peterson's $1,000 salary was paid by the Covenant, half by CTS. When the
Covenant school was established in Minneapolis in 1891, the Covenant withdrew its
funding and Peterson's earnings were augmented out of Risberg's own pocket.
"P. C. Trandberg, D e l i v e r a n c e from Babylon and Its Foreshadowings (Chicago: N. O.
Moore, 1888), 4If.
"For a discussion of the Trandberg controversy, see Hale, "Scandinavian Depart­ments,"
108-111.
3 6M. W. Montgomery, The P i l g r i m (Oct. 1886), as quoted by Hale, Transatlantic
C o n s e r v a t i v e Protestantism, 233.
" M i n u t e s of t h e National Council (1889), 175f., 276, as quoted by Hale, ibid.
'"Reports of t h e A m e r i c a n H o m e M i s s i o n a r y Society, 64th Report (New York: American
Home Missionary Society, 1890), 61ff.
"Missions-Vännen, Jan. 22, 1890; Jan. 29, 1890.
4 0M. W. Montgomery, "Our Scandinavian Brethren," T h e A d v a n c e , Jan. 23,1890, 68.
4 ,H. M. Scott to M . W. Montgomery, June 16, 1890, as quoted by Lindstrom, "The
Risberg School," 21.
42J. B. Clark to M. W. Montgomery, n.d., as quoted by Anderson, "Analysis of
Congregational A i d , " 35.
"For an extensive description of these 106 churches, see the sympathetic history by
A. P. Nelson, S v e n s k a Missionsvännernas historia i A m e r i k a (Minneapolis: published by
the author, 1906). In an attempt to show the common history of Mission Friends
with English and American Congregationalism (to merge the rhetorical traditions),
Nelson had written P u r i t a n e r n a s och P i l g r i m e r n a s historia (Boston: Pilgrim Press,
1901). If Risberg had had Nelson's promotional energy, the history of Swedish
Congregationalism might have been quite different.
44For a discussion of Congregational work in the EMA, see Paul A. Day, U n i t y and
F r e e d o m : O n e H u n d r e d Years of t h e East Coast Conference of t h e Evangelical Covenant
C h u r c h (n.p.: East Coast Conference, 1990). For the Northwest, see Philip J.
Anderson, A P r e c i o u s H e r i t a g e : A C e n t u r y of M i s s i o n in t h e N o r t h w e s t , 1 8 8 4 - 1 9 84
230
(Minneapolis: Northwest Conference, 1984); and "Protokollbok för svenska kongre¬
gational predikantföreningen i nordvestern," 1898-1918, MS, Covenant Archives
and Historical Library, Chicago.
"Ironically, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission was organized in the Swedish
Tabernacle in Minneapolis, the very place and in the same year that the Covenant
school had its home, demonstrating the fluid lines of division among Mission
Friends. I am indebted to Vernon Mortenson for permitting me to see a draft of his
forthcoming centennial history of The Evangelical Alliance Mission. Cf. also
Josephine Princell, ed., A l l i a n s m i s s i o n e n s tjugufemårsminnen (Chicago: Skandinaviska
Alliansmissionen, 1916); and Frederick Hale, "Norwegians, Danes, and the Origins
of the Evangelical Free Tradition," N o r w e g i a n - A m e r i c a n S t u d i e s 29 (Northfield:
Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1979), 82-108.
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 78. Risberg wrote: "There were never two persons
more unlike each other than Franson and myself, but for many years we knew each
other and worked together for the Mission, [and] we never had an unkind word
between us" (quoted in J. F. Swanson, ed., T h r e e Score Years . . . a n d T h e n : S i x t y Years
of Worldwide M i s s i o n a r y A d v a n c e [Chicago: The Evangelical Alliance Mission (1951),
446]).
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 76. The Danish-Norwegian free churches opened a
seminary in Rushford, Minnesota, in 1909, with the cooperation of CTS. It moved to
Minneapolis in 1916.
4 8H. M. Scott and S. I. Curtiss to David Nyvall, Feb. 11, 1902, David Nyvall Papers,
Covenant Archives and Historical Library, Chicago.
4 9H. M. Scott to E. G. Hjerpe, April 26, 1907, Covenant Archives and Historical
Library, Chicago.
50"Risberg's School: North Park Seminary Correspondence on Union 1910-1911,"
MS, Covenant Archives and Historical Library, Chicago. For example, it was agreed
to publish a directory of associated ministers, congregations, and mission organiza­tions
to be of value especially to new immigrants and those moving to other places.
The Covenant and Congregationalists complied, the Free did not.
5 1 Algoth Ohlson to Oscar E. Olson, Dec. 9, 1959, Covenant Archives and Historical
Library, Chicago.
"Josephine Princell, J. G . P r i n c e l l s l e v n a d s m i n n e n (Chicago: J. V. Martensons Tryckeri,
1916), 265.
"Chicago Swedish Mission Ministers to O. S. Davis, Mar. 27, 1911, Covenant
Archives and Historical Library, Chicago.
" O . S. Davis to E. G. Hjerpe, May 11, 1911, Covenant Archives and Historical
library, Chicago.
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 76.
5 6Edwin H. Friedman, G e n e r a t i o n to G e n e r a t i o n : Family Progress in C h u r c h a n d
S y n a g o g u e (New York: Guilford Press, 1985), 27. See also Michael E. Kerr and Murray
Bowen, Family E v a l u a t i o n : A n A p p r o a c h Based on Bowen Theory (New York: Norton,
1988).
"John Higham, "Leadership," in Michael Walzer, et al, T h e Politics of E t h n i c i t y
(Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1982), 69-91.
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 77.
231

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

All rights held by the Swedish-American Historical Society. No part of this publication, except in the case of brief quotations, may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the editor and, where appropriate, the original author(s). For more information, please email the Society at info@swedishamericanhist.org

THE "RISBERG SCHOOL" IN CHICAGO:
AMERICAN AID AND SWEDISH
IMMIGRANT MINISTERIAL EDUCATION,
1885-1916
PHILIP J. ANDERSON
Frederick Jackson Turner made commonplace the notion that to
understand America it is necessary to understand the immigrants.
It has been less evident perhaps that to understand the immigrants
it is necessary to understand their religions. Two decades ago,
Rudolph J. Vecoli observed that ethnicity in American historio­graphy
has been something of a family scandal with skeletons in
the closet; Martin E. Marty extended the image to suggest that
"ethnicity is the skeleton of religion in America because it provides
the supporting framework, the bare outlines or main features, of
American religion."' Though we have learned much about the
pluralistic character of American religion, Marty states in his most
recent book that the greatest conflict has been "between the
original-stock Anglo-Saxon Protestant peoples and 'everyone el­se.'"
2
This reality explains the rich historical themes of nativistic claims
of Protestant hegemony and immigrant struggles with incorpora­tion
and identity. In a more positive way, it also points to the variety
of means and motives by which American aid was offered to
immigrant churches. Since the time of George Stephenson's
Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration (1932), which transcended
traditional denominational historiography, historians have often
generalized about Swedish Americans as either secular or religious,
assuming that the latter were predominantly Augustana Lutheran
and rural in character.3 In the case of the Swedes, however,
American aid in its most generous forms was a later and more
urban phenomenon (though many rural churches benefited), and
did not involve the Augustana Synod but the various Swedish-
American "free church" groups that traced their origins to the
Mission Friend movements of Carl Olof Rosenius (1816-1868) and
Paul Peter Waldenström (1838-1917). These were immigrants who
arrived well after the Civil War, beginning especially in the 1870s
208
and 80s, and whose youthful leaders directed a surging immigrant
stream of young, single, and urban Swedish Americans. The most
poignant and protracted record of aid came from the American
Congregationalists between 1885 and 1916, and was aimed not only
at Swedes, but at Danes, Norwegians, and Germans in an
educational enterprise centered largely at Chicago Theological
Seminary (CTS).4
This study focuses on Fridolf Risberg (1848-1921), who headed
the Swedish Department of CTS and its promotion of a Swedish
Congregational church with confidence in an inevitable assimila­tion
into the American denomination, and on the protest raised by
leaders of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church, such
as David Nyvall (1863-1946), who labored for a more highly
differentiated Swedish-American identity through their own
school, North Park College and Theological Seminary. Adding
complexity to the story is the more independently organized
mission activity of the Free elements in their own congregations
and in Fredrik Franson's Skandinaviska Alliansmissionen (Scandinav­ian
Alliance Mission), founded in 1891, which included Danes and
Norwegians as well. All of these activities centered in Chicago.
More than any other individual, Risberg was connected to all three
of these religious associations. The complex, competitive efforts at
ministerial education in Chicago between 1885 and 1916 demon­strate
the strength of the various free movements in numbers, vying
for relatively limited resources in an intensely Americanized
setting. It also shows a striking degree of pragmatic cooperation
and sporadic attempts at merger where Risberg was clearly the
bridge.
I
Before looking more closely at Risberg, it would be well to
establish the outlines of educational issues among Mission Friends
and the self-understanding of American Congregationalists in their
home mission work with immigrants. The religious awakening that
began in the 1830s in Sweden had a leveling effect on many of the
primary institutions of society. In addition to national educational
reform in the 1840s, the religious folk movements established
several ministerial training schools, such as Peter Fjellstedt's in
Stockholm and P. A. Ahlberg's in Vetlanda. Waldenström's popular
serial allegory Brukspatron Adamsson (Squire Adamsson), published
in 1862-3, made the universities at Uppsala and Lund with their
209
attendant clericalism appear to be "preacher factories." Instead,
the faithful läsare were informed that the best learning came at the
feet of "Mother Simple" and "Father Experience" in the "Misery
Class" rather than from professors "Cocksure" and "Wise-in-His-
Own Conceits" at "Theology College."5
When applied to the children of revival in America and their
itinerant evangelists and pastors, it is little wonder that education in
general, and ministerial training in particular, became noisy fields
of battle. During the 1870s, those Mission Friends who had left
Augustana or the Synod of Northern Illinois to follow their
convictions of non-confessional biblical authority and gathered
believers' churches, organized themselves in free Lutheran synods.
The largest of these, the Mission Synod (1873), was opposed to
schools altogether and never worked to establish one.6 For example,
when Carl Johan Nyvall (1829-1904) visited America in 1876 he
found it odd that the Mission Friends in Lindsborg, Kansas, would
praise Bethany College so highly when the first disciples merely
learned at the school of Jesus.7 The Mission Synod formulated a
statement on ministerial education at Des Moines, Iowa, in January
1880, which read in part:
Fully conscious of the need of a minister to have
essential skills, as for example to read properly and clothe
his thoughts in somewhat orderly phrases . . . we
nevertheless believe that such essential knowledge can be
secured in a less pretentious manner than through
seminaries or whatever they are called; furthermore
because we have found no reference to the establishment
of such schools in the Scriptures . . . [and] since it is
clearly manifest that schools have more destroyed and
hindered than furthered Christian life . . . the meeting
decided that it considered it essential to cease discussing
the matter. . . . And this so much the more since it would
be heartless to impose such a burden [of ministerial
education] upon our friends.8
In contrast, the Ansgar Synod (1874), closer to Augustana in
theology and to the General Synod in its openness to Americaniza­tion,
supported its own school, which had been started the
previous year in Keokuk, Iowa, by its most energetic leader, the
Dane Charles Anderson. Moving to Knoxville, Illinois, in 1875, the
fledgling school struggled for a decade as a result of inadequate
resources and students, as well as the limited strength of the
210
Ansgar Synod in a period of escalating synodical suspicion and
strife. When the school fell into the hands of "Free" iconoclasts like
J. G. Princell (1845-1915) in 1879, the only thing that kept the school
attached to the synod was a legal condition that if the synod
dissolved, the assets of Ansgar College would revert to the city of
Knoxville. Though several pastors were trained at the college, the
school folded when the Ansgar and Mission synods, along with
several independent congregations, merged in Chicago in February
1885 to form the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church.'
The only Covenant school on the horizon was a little independent
immigrant training school in Minneapolis, begun by Erik August
Skogsbergh (1850-1939) in 1884, who was an evangelist and pastor,
not an educator. Moreover, it made no provision for ministerial
training. This school would be taken over by the Covenant in 1891.
The woeful planning for ministerial education by American
Covenanters, partially the result of little liquid capital, did not go
unnoticed by CTS and the American Home Missionary Society
(AHMS). Three representatives, Hugh MacDonald Scott and
Samuel Ives Curtiss of CTS and Frederick E. Emrich of the
Tabernacle Church in Chicago, were present at the Covenant's
organizational meeting to offer immediate assistance through the
expanding foreign work of the seminary. A German department
had been opened in 1882, followed by a Danish-Norwegian
department in 1884. Instruction was also given in Finnish. By the
autumn of 1885 a Swedish department joined the ranks under the
leadership of Fridolf Risberg, fresh from Sweden and hand-picked
by Waldenström and Covenant president C. A. Björk (1837-1916) at
Congregational expense. A Bohemian department was authorized
in 1886 but never materialized.
The Congregational AHMS, a product of the Plan of Union with
Presbyterians in 1801, sought to extend the New England way on
the frontier, intertwining nationalism and religion bolstered by a
romanticized and partly-invented historiography of its Puritan
roots. New Englanders began arriving in Chicago in the 1830s, and
the Chicago Association was formed in 1835 independent of
Presbyterian participation. The first Congregational church was
organized in 1851, and because of a general shortage of ministers in
the Midwest, CTS opened its doors in 1858, perpetuating on the
frontier New England agendas of abolition, Native American
missions, manifest destiny, and the Kingdom of God in America.
211
Swedish Lutherans had had early involvement with the AHMS
in the ministry of Lars Paul Esbjörn, an unhappy experience that
contributed to the formation of the Augustana Synod in 1860. The
Norwegian pastor Paul Andersen had previously received aid in
1848 for his church in Chicago. Esbjörn incurred the wrath of
Gustaf Unonius and others when in 1850 he accepted an annual
stipend of 300 dollars from the AHMS. But Esbjörn himself chafed
while teaching at Illinois State University under the expectations to
submit to Reformed views of regeneration, sacraments, election,
and eternal security, sensing an oppressive form of ecclesiastic
condescension. Eric Norelius wondered how Esbjörn could "throw
himself into the arms of such a thoroughly reformed, puritanical,
and in all respects anti-Lutheran society?"10 Esbjörn, however,
detested the embrace and walked away, sealing for the future
Augustana's attitude toward any encroachment by the Congrega¬
tionalists.
Congregational aid to Swedish Mission Friends represented the
coming together of varying degrees of cultural nativism and a
growing conviction that these people were indeed Congregational¬
ists, but, according to Scott, "there were no Congregationalists in
Sweden to tell them so."1 1 In 1867 the Chicago Association
discussed how to reach immigrants and concluded that "the aim
should be to nationalize them and gather them into our churches,
rather than to establish churches exclusively of foreign elements."12
Levi Cobb, superintendent of the AHMS in Minnesota, asserted in
1878: "To us nothing is plainer than this—that God has sent these
people to our very doors for us to Christianize. We must do it, or they
will make Europeans of us."1 3 The challenge to "Americanize,
Christianize, Congregationalize" was summed up by Curtiss when
he asked, "What have we, orthodox offspring of the pilgrim
fathers, done to teach these children of Luther a more excellent
way?"14
By the mid-1880s this nativism had developed into a rhetorical
tradition justifying aid to Scandinavian free church immigrants
while glossing over inherent doctrinal and ecclesiological differenc­es.
15 The power of this tradition was particularly articulated by
Marcus Whitman Montgomery (1839-1894) in his position as
superintendent of the Scandinavian work of the AHMS, which
included an extended visit to Scandinavia in 1884 and the resulting
enthusiastic report of "spontaneous Congregationalism" entitled A
Wind From the H o l y Spirit in Sweden and Norway (1885).16 The rhetoric
212
of Montgomery, Scott, Curtiss, and others treated the northern
Europeans as different from other immigrants, as "allies with us in
the work of saving America for Christ," in effect making the
Germans and Scandinavians "second-class WASPs"—one in the
cause, but only because they were perceived to be easily assimilat­ed.
1 7 At the same time, it was natural for immigrants to participate
in the American religious institutions that most clearly resembled
their own, and many Swedes initially came to believe the rhetorical
tradition.
Based on his travels, Montgomery concluded that the "Swedish
free churches are purely Congregational" in all respects, despite no
previous contact.18 Even as he rhapsodized about the similarities,
naively confirmed by Waldenström, the nativism directed toward
these "desirable people" was clear:
The information gathered may be summarized thus: The
Scandinavians are, all things considered, among the best
foreigners who come to American shores. . . . They who love
liberty and religion will make the best citizens of this
republic. Just such are the Scandinavians. They are almost
universally Protestants; comparably few are sceptics. They
have been reared to believe in God, the Sabbath, and in
salvation through Christ. They ardently love the principle
upon which our republic rests and hence are intensely
loyal. In politics they are generally Republican. They have
large, strong bodies; are industrious, frugal, eager, apt,
modest, intelligent. Very many American homes are
blessed with the services of Scandinavian girls whose
ways are likely to be honest, quiet, faithful, cleanly, and
pious.
In several respects the Scandinavians are in marked
contrast with some foreign elements among us. They are
not peddlers, nor organ grinders nor beggars; they do not
sell ready-made clothing nor keep pawn-shops; their
religion is not hostile to free institutions; they do not come
here temporarily, and, while seeking for gain, live a
foreign life, praying all the while that their bones may yet
lie in the lands from which they came. . . . This
republic—the hope and aspiration of the world—has
nothing to fear from the Scandinavians, but very much to
gain. After a careful observation of these people in this
land and in their native countries, I am clearly of the
213
opinion that they are more nearly like Americans than any other
foreign peoples. In manners and customs, political and
religious instructions, fertility of adaptation, personal
appearance, and cosmopolitan character, they are strikingly
like native Americans. . . . The first generation of
American-born Scandinavians, when they reach the age of
twenty years, cannot generally be distinguished from
Americans by either appearance, language, or customs.19
Despite the strength of this rhetorical tradition (and many such
examples can be marshalled), leaders at CTS also had a more
pragmatic and pastoral view that because these Scandinavians " in
sympathy with us" needed an educated ministry and had neither
preparatory academies nor seminaries of their own, such an
extension of home mission was worthy and altruistic.20 Through
such benevolence it was hoped that "they will take a warm interest
in our churches and naturally look to us as their American helpers
and friends." Furthermore, added Scott, "we are not slow to take
the hint."21
This then sets the context for Risberg's arrival at CTS in the
autumn of 1885, a world of faith and education that must have
seemed very foreign to him. While the Congregationalists were
quite certain of the qualities that defined an American, such an
identifiable species must have seemed highly illusive through the
eyes of an immigrant. No doubt CTS provided Risberg with a
culture and context that allowed him to be a bridge among Swedish
leaders and groups between 1885 and World War I, three decades
that were the key time for issues of identity, self-differentiation, and
degrees of ethnic consciousness, made all the more pressing by
generational change.
II
Fridolf Risberg was born on 4 November 1848 at Nysätra in the
province of Västerbotten.22 The son of a provincial physician, he
attended Umeå College and Uppsala University, graduating in
1871. After two years working as a tutor for a wealthy family,
Risberg was ordained in Uppsala in December 1874; he then served
as a pastor in various parishes in northern Sweden. Risberg
became increasingly dissatisfied with the state church, and a
significant turning point occurred in 1880 when the itinerant
evangelist Fredrik Franson (1852-1908) held meetings for three
214
Fridolf Risberg, head of t h e S w e d i s h D e p a r t m e n t
of t h e Chicago Theological Seminary, c. 1 8 9 0.
( C o u r t e s y of t h e Covenant Archives and
Historical Library.)
weeks in Härnösand, where Risberg was pastor. He shared his
home with Franson and they formed a permanent friendship,
which in a decade would establish a new alliance in Chicago.23 On
30 April 1882 Risberg preached his farewell sermon in the parish
church of Edsele, thus joining the Mission Covenant Church. A
devout and sensitive man, highly influenced by Waldenström,
Risberg criticized the state church for its rigid confessionalism, its
lack of courage in applying spiritual discipline, and its practices of
membership apart from voluntary signs of regeneration. "It is
almost like serving God and Mammon," preached Risberg. "Two
such different lords I can no longer serve. . . . I have been called to a
work in greater conformity to the word of God."2 4 He claims that
the decision was five years in the making.
Having been secured by Björk and Waldenström in the summer
of 1885, Risberg commenced his teaching at CTS on 9 September
joining what A. C. McGiffert later called a "polyglot seminary"
215
comprised of the various foreign departments. Having studied
Shakespeare at Uppsala, Risberg knew at least some English, but
for some time he conducted his conversations with the faculty in
German. He began with fourteen students. A lifelong bachelor,
these were his family, and of the 313 Swedish students between
1885 and 1916, only one of seven had been born in the United
States, and the average age was twenty-eight.25 John H . Morley of
the AHMS spoke at Risberg's inauguration of the rosy prospects of
assimilation through mission. "America, especially the North­west,"
he said, "is plastic to the touch of Christ," and all foreigners
will be "moulded" by American institutions "so that they should
not be alien to our nation, but homogeneous, no line of cleavage
appearing."26
This ambition was shared by Fridolf Risberg, and his work at CTS
was guided by the conviction that eventual assimilation into the
American church would best serve the needs of the Swedish
Mission Friends. In 1892 he wrote:
My opinion is that every European who makes this land
his home should think from the very beginning that he is
to become a good American. The English language must
in time become our mother tongue. In the future, then,
our preaching must be in English. Then certainly our
churches may coalesce with the American. However, for
the near future Swedish must be the chief language
among us. It is because the training of Swedish preachers
among Americans has a future before it that I willingly
labor in this seminary.27
Risberg formally joined the Congregational Church in 1894.
The work of CTS with the Scandinavian free churches was
complicated by the fact that the Covenant Church was a new
denomination, and the issue of control over its students had never
been resolved, leading to years of misunderstanding. The first
annual meeting of the Covenant in Princeton, Illinois, in September
1885, directed specific questions to CTS regarding admission, the
relationship of students to Swedish congregations, and the nature
of Risberg's connection to the seminary, though a committee of
Covenant leaders had been meeting with him to screen ministerial
candidates.
In time, a partial solution was reached as the Covenant provided
money to pay for an assistant to Risberg, pushed by Björk as he
remained adamant that the Swedes should not have their own
216
school. This person was David Nyvall, who arrived in the fall of
1888. After his emigration from Sweden in 1886, Nyvall had taught
at Skogsbergh's school in Minneapolis and served a congregation
in Sioux City, Iowa. Having passed his pre-medical examinations at
Uppsala and begun his medical studies at the Carolinian Institute
in Stockholm, Nyvall was thoroughly at home in the rigorous
academic climate of CTS.28 He later described his time with Risberg
as "two of the most delightful years of my life."2 9 By 1889 there
were forty students enrolled in the Swedish department's four-year
program (much larger than the other foreign departments), and
though they were housed separately from the American students—
because of their inferior learning—Scott once defended them by
saying to all the students: "You American boys with your degrees
need not look down on these Swedish lads; I will be satisfied if you
know as much about the Bible when you finish here as these
fellows knew when they were confirmed in Sweden at the age of
fifteen years."80
Nyvall, however, vigorously disagreed with Risberg's views of
Americanization, saying that " i n all things personal Risberg and I
were one, but in school matters and in matters of denominational
interests we did not agree."31For reasons that we shall see, Nyvall's
role in the stormy discussions of schools and possible mergers led
to the conviction that the Covenant needed its own school if the
denomination was to have a future and if Swedish-American
people were to shape their own cultural and religious lives. In
reference to CTS and ministerial education, Nyvall wondered how
the Covenant could assume responsibility "simply by watching
with others at the entrance while the Seminary alone stood watch
over the exit." In April 1890, Nyvall tendered his resignation "to be
free to work for a Covenant school."3 2 Covenant leaders, however,
were reluctant to sever connections with CTS (Björk was still
somewhat suspicious of education and cautious about grass-roots
perceptions), so Magnus E. Peterson (1850-1940) was called from
Stromsburg, Nebraska, to succeed Nyvall in 1890, and together he
labored with Risberg until the department, called the Swedish
Institute after 1903, closed in 1916.33
Nyvall must have been deeply affected by the experience of Peter
Christian Trandberg (1832-1896), who was the instructor in the
Danish-Norwegian department from its opening in 1884 until his
termination by CTS in 1890. He was fifty when he emigrated from
Denmark, a graduate of the University of Copenhagen and
217
D a v i d Nyvall, president of N o r t h Park College, 1901.
( C o u r t e s y of t h e C o v e n a n t A r c h i v e s a n d Historical
L i b r a r y . )
converted by the writings of Kierkegaard. Trandberg was a devout
"free Lutheran," and had received from Montgomery "permission
to hold fast to Lutheran interpretation."34 A controversy arose
when Trandberg learned that Congregationalists were being told
that he was at CTS to protect it and his students from Lutheran
influences. Trandberg had formed several free Lutheran congrega­tions
in Chicago and countered publicly that he "heartily adhere[s]
to the Lutheran view of the mysteries of salvation." Perhaps
reminiscent of Esbjörn, he accused CTS of "blatant sheep-stealing,"
and Montgomery of buying converts by offering aid to
students and churches.35 He was fired. Trandberg was followed by
Reinert Jernberg, a graduate of both Yale and CTS, and an ardent
assimilationist and Congregationalist known for his caustic attacks
on Lutheranism. While Nyvall did not share in Trandberg's
evangelistic millenarianism, he did identify with his free Lutheran
stand in a Calvinistic enclave and the critique that similarities in
polity do not make for common ecclesiologies.
218
The years 1889 to 1891 were crucial for future alignments among
the Scandinavian free churches and the place that Congregational
aid might have. Waldenström visited America in 1889, merger
discussions and the dismissal of Trandberg and the resignation of
Nyvall occurred in 1890, and a Covenant school as well as
Franson's Scandinavian Alliance Mission (SAM) were formed in
1891. In the midst of this organizational activity, it became more
clear that Congregationalist hopes would be limited by the
self-determinitive actions of the Scandinavians themselves, pro­ducing
either, on one hand, intentional denominational commit­ments
(the Covenant) or, on the other, more amorphous associa¬
tional activity (SAM), across whose spectrum people moved freely
and where schools became the key symbols of a potentially greater
cooperation. It was here that the low-profiled and unassuming
Fridolf Risberg became a tenuous link between all.
FL
What were the ambitions of the Congregationalists? On the basis
of the rhetorical tradition, it is tempting to see assimilation and
absorption of the Scandinavian free churches as the goal. Congre­gational
leaders had made this quite clear. If one reads more
closely, however, it is equally clear that the overriding concern was
the Protestant establishment in America, which had become
embattled by many forces, especially "foreign" Roman Catholicism
being by far the largest religious group in America. They diligently
sought alliances with Protestant immigrants, and were quite happy
to allow ethnic groups to establish their own denominations. In
1886, for example, Montgomery wrote that "organic unity between
Congregationalists and Mission Swedes is not desired by either
party, but Christian fellowship between them grows with mutual
acquaintance."36
It should not be surprising, then, that in response to this,
Covenant leaders developed a rhetorical tradition of their own that
became widely promoted in the press and among the people. The
Congregationalists sent many mixed messages rooted in their
nativism. This is well illustrated by the one effort at joint
denominational affiliation in 1889-90. At the triennial Congrega­tional
National Council meeting in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the
fall of 1889, a "fraternal overture" was made to the Covenant.
Sensing the Covenant's sensitivity about assimilation, the resolu-
219
tion added that the church should "retain their present name and
organization, and carry on the work in their own language and
methods, and send delegates to the National Council." In reference
to financial support of ministers and churches, it was stated that
"this aid is not given for the purpose of making Congregationalists
of them."3 7 Moreover, Waldenström was then making his first tour
of America, had received an honorary doctorate at Yale, and was
well known for his support of affiliation with the Congregational­ists,
though he feared the liberalizing tendencies of Americaniza­tion.
Even as the Covenant emphatically refused the proposal,
Waldenström wrote: "It would be a joy if all the Swedish Free
churches would unite in a Swedish Association, and then this
Association, as such, join the Congregationalists. But as the
situation is at present, it may be best to have patience."36
David Nyvall and Axel Mellander, who in 1892 became dean of
the Covenant school, anticipated the Covenant's rejection of the
overture. In January 1890 Mellander wrote in Missions-Vännen that
the freedom of the Covenant "cannot be sold either for Congrega­tional
favors or American bribes." A week later, Nyvall added: "We
shall not be assimilated because we shall not be Americanized. By
making the best of what we now are, we can best educate the
[Swedish] nation in America. . . . If we are good Swedes (in an
apolitical sense), we are good Americans."39 The same week,
Montgomery wrote in exasperation: "Some of their leaders are as
blind . . . as the ostrich with her head in the sand. They bitterly
oppose Americanizing influences. As well might they strive against
the rising of tomorrow's sun. They will succeed only in extinguish­ing
themselves."40 In a similar vein, Scott wrote to Montgomery
stating that should Nyvall wish to return to CTS he would have to
promise to "act loyally with us and at least cease all attacks on us....
To give some men rope enough means self-hanging."41
The proposal was formally rejected by the Covenant's executive
board at a joint meeting with the Congregationalists on 4-5
February 1890, at the Pacific Hotel in Chicago. The reasons given
demonstrate the rhetorical tradition emerging in the Covenant,
namely, Nyvall's concern for denominational identity and Swe­dish-
American ethnic consciousness, and Mellander's fear of
theological liberalism and social laxity. It is obvious that both sides
misunderstood each other's intentions, but both had given ample
cause for so doing. A n embittered Joseph B. Clark, secretary of the
AHMS, believed that the Covenant's delegates to the meeting were
220
not fully representative, and complained in a letter to Montgomery
"that they could not probably manage the team which they assume
to be driving. . . . let the Förbundet go to the grass or to the grave. I
guess it does not matter much which."42
The Congregational leaders had good reason to wonder about the
Covenant's central leadership, though they totally misread the
internal divisions among the Scandinavian free churches. By 1890
the AHMS had aided numerous churches in the New England
states, and in December of that year the Eastern Missionary
Association (EMA) formed in Worcester, Massachusetts, along
regional lines similar to what had been proposed nationally.
Though the EMA merged solely with the Covenant in 1921, these
churches were in effect Covenant all along (though known as
Swedish Congregational) with clergy trained largely at Risberg's
school.
By the turn of the century, there were over a hundred Swedish
Congregational churches with some 5,000 members concentrated
Faculty and s t u d e n t s at t h e Chicago Theological
S e m i n a r y , 1 8 9 0 . Fridolf R i s b e r g center left, D a v id
Nyvall, center right. ( C o u r t e s y of t h e Covenant
A r c h i v e s a n d Historical Library.)
221
most heavily in New England and areas of Minnesota and
Wisconsin.43 In the East, this dual affiliation persisted for decades
in local congregations, whereas in the Northwest, a separate
Swedish Congregational association of churches and pastors
existed from 1898 until its merger with the Covenant's Northwest­ern
Missionary Association (1884) in 1918. It is both surprising and
revealing that there were few Swedish Congregational churches in
Illinois, and only one small congregation in Chicago (which moved
many times, and in 1905 had only sixty members), and four in the
suburbs.44 Thus the influence of the AHMS and CTS had virtually
no impact in areas where the Covenant was strongest. Churches in
the East were founded at least a decade later, were more urban and
separated geographically from church politics in Chicago, and were
in close proximity to New England history and culture, as well as to
theological schools at New Haven, Hartford, and Boston.
As the relationship between Congregationalists and the Swedish
Mission Friends changed after 1890, the place of Fridolf Risberg,
relatively quiet up to this point, came into greater prominence.
Even then, in the absence of his papers, we know most about him
from others and by his actions. Though not a Congregationalist
himself until 1894, Risberg was the symbol of Swedish Congrega­tionalism.
At the same time, his close ties to the Covenant were
evidenced by his declining the invitation to become president of the
new Covenant school in Minneapolis in 1892—thus giving the
opportunity to Nyvall. Of even more importance, however, was
Risberg's connection to a third group, which he most personally
identified with, namely the mission activities associated with
Fredrik Franson's Scandinavian Alliance Mission (SAM), in direct
competition with Covenant missionary activity.
Franson's mission was organized in 1891, the year after the
Covenant sent its first missionary to China and Franson began
mobilizing young people, "without reference to their affiliation,"
to go to China and elsewhere.45 Risberg moved, therefore,
markedly away from the Covenant after 1891, at the same time that
he was the most visible proponent of Americanization among the
Swedes and deeply involved with the more radical Scandinavian
Free congregations in the alliance mission. Since his friend Franson
was the traveling carpetbagger, Risberg, as secretary, ran the SAM
from his office at CTS, a position he held until his death in 1921. In
effect, he was the director. Because of these connections, the
churches in the East supported the SAM rather than Covenant
222
missions, a most uncomfortable development. Though Nyvall
admired Risberg and prized his friendship, he wrote in 1930 that all
Covenant "hardships" with the Swedish Congregationalists were
"symbolized in the personal factor of Risberg." Because of him, it
was possible for many churches in these groups to be "separated
yet federated in spirit."4 6
These complex relationships, however, were not to be played out
on the level of church mergers. Rather, it was in a series of attempts
to unite schools representing the Covenant, the Swedish Congrega­tionalists,
and the Free, that show the different perspectives on
mission, institutions, assimilation, and ethnic consciousness and
boundaries. It can be argued that in these relationships one can see
the stronger role of urban networks and institutions when
compared to older rural environments. It may also be asserted that
groups rooted in revival and the folk movements in opposition to
the Swedish state church could more readily adapt to the
competitive American environment of religious pluralism and
voluntarism.
The Covenant school moved to Chicago in 1894, became known
as North Park and entered into more direct competition with CTS,
though it was unable to offer comparable aid to students studying
for Covenant ministry. Young immigrants were poor and CTS
attracted many of these students and often continued the aid as
they went on to serve Swedish Congregational churches. A sizable
number, however, remained with Covenant congregations. The
Swedish Free churches began their own school in Chicago in 1901
under the leadership of Princell, which always struggled, moved
for a time to Minneapolis and Franconia, Minnesota, and finally
returned to Chicago—affiliated loosely with Moody Bible Institute.
Nyvall said that whereas the Mission Friends should have been
united, they "were now divided not only in two organizations, as at
the onset, but in partes tres, to borrow from Caesar, a division
accentuated by the three schools serving practically the same
constituency."4' Consequently, all three schools struggled with
limited resources and students.
The lengthy merger discussions between 1902 and 1911 consis­tently
encountered two differing convictions. First, the Covenant
and North Park, concerned for an emerging identity as a Swedish-
American church, wished only to absorb Risberg's school into its
existing seminary program. Because of historic differences and the
Free's antidenominational spirit, North Park wanted nothing to do
223
with Princell's school. Second, leaders at CTS worked diligently for
a new union of the three schools. Amid the talk, meetings, and
correspondence, there was little hope of bridging these differences,
despite the universal admiration of Risberg personally and symboli­cally.
Nyvall proposed in 1902 the transfer of the Swedish department
at CTS to North Park. In a lengthy reply, Scott and Curtiss refused
the offer, no doubt with memories of Nyvall's "disloyalty" a
decade before, and proposed instead a new "Union Theological
Seminary" of the three schools under Congregational auspices,
where North Park would provide undergraduate preparation in its
college.48 This same scenario was repeated in 1906 when representa­tives
from the three schools convened at the Oak Street Mission in
Chicago.49 By early 1907 the discussions had died.5 0 The Covenant
was now over two decades old, more secure in its prospects of
moving into the second generation, and more firm in its prejudices,
especially since the publication of Mellander's stinging attack on
the Congregationalists in 1900, Betänkande i kongregationalist-frågan
(Thoughts On the Congregationalist Question).
Two events in 1908 portray vividly the hopes and disappoint­ments
born of deep division. In the North Park archives is a silver
loving cup with three unusual handles, presented to Risberg on his
sixtieth birthday in 1908 by the graduates of his school at CTS.
Algoth Ohlson, a graduate in 1907 and later president of North Park
(1924-1949), remembered:
The presentation of the gift, as I recall it, took place on a
festive occasion where there were a large number of
people present, representatives of the three Swedish
theological seminaries in Chicago. . . . During the program
someone suggested that one representative of each school
should grasp a handle of the cup simultaneously while
someone else led in prayer for harmonious cooperation
and possible future consolidation. . . . So far as I know,
this ceremony was never repeated; nor was there any deep
feeling of symbolic meaning in the first and only expres­sion
of it.51
Also in 1908, the loose association of Free congregations
organized itself in Minneapolis as a denomination, the Swedish
Evangelical Free Church. Princell, who was present, protested that
a mission association should not have the word "church" in its
name, that such an organization was premature. He wanted room
224
for independent congregations, yet he too harbored hope for a
merging of all three groups. His passionate speech to the delegates
was not recorded in the minutes, but in it he said: "In order that a
kettle shall be able to stand up straight, it must have at least three
legs. And we ought to wait in adopting the name 'Free church' until
the kettle has three legs to stand on. And you know what they are:
the Covenant, the Free, and the Congregationalists. For it is evident
that they will become one if we wait a little."5 2
The final discussions occurred between September 1910 and May
1911. With Nyvall away from North Park in voluntary exile between
1905 and 1912, the EMA had passed a resolution in Brockton,
Massachusetts, to revive the idea of a union of the three theological
schools. The North Park board endorsed it, renewing the proviso
that Risberg's school should be transferred to North Park, and that
he would be invited to become president. The Free church school
was not mentioned. E. G. Hjerpe, the new president of the
Covenant, conveyed this on 29 March 1911 to Ozora Stearns Davis,
president of CTS since 1908 and concerned to find a permanent
solution to the now outdated foreign institutes. Davis insisted in his
reply that it be a union of three schools in order to "promote the
union of three bodies." And while Chicago Covenant pastors had
written to Davis saying that "Risberg commends the highest
respect of our people and possesses] such sterling qualities and
thorough learning and experience that would make him an ideal
President for such a school,"5 3 Davis countered that Risberg was
too old to change positions and "not fitted" to be president of
North Park, only the dean of a seminary. When the boards of North
Park and CTS met together on 6 May 1911, tempers flared and the
stalemate continued. Davis finally concluded "that the obstacles in
the way of union are so many and so great that for the present it is
impossible."54 It was never brought up again.
The Danish-Norwegian Institute closed in 1913 and, upon
Risberg's retirement in 1916, so did the Swedish Institute. Nyvall
paid tribute to Risberg by saying that his "ability, and the
confidence he inspired, kept his school going long after it had
ceased to be necessary or even helpful to its original purpose of
training ministers for the Mission Friends." By the early 1890s, and
certainly by the turn of the century, Risberg's school "had no
purpose of its own" since most of its graduates "associated
themselves with the Covenant."55
225
rv
What is interesting in this history of American aid is not so much
the Congregationalists' desire to incorporate a significant section of
the Swedish-American people, which may easily be overstated, but
how the various Mission Friend groups responded to the overtures.
On one hand, the distinctives that divided the Covenant, the Free,
the Swedish Congregationalists, and the independents, come into
sharp focus. On the other hand, one can also see the development
of a pan-ethnic "mission" identity that embraced all the Scandin­avian
free churches and fostered cooperation and hopes for merger,
driven by religion and held together by ethnicity. The challenge was
to steer between the Scylla of assimilation without tradition and the
Charybdis of tradition without assimilation.
The divisions, however, were products both of religion and
ethnicity. Among the Swedish Congregationalists was an uncritical
accommodation to the American world of Reformed theology and
culture, while remaining essentially Swedish and free Lutheran.
Among the Free churches was a far more sectarian view of religion
and life, and an almost total disregard for ethnic distinctives, while
accommodating almost fully to Anglo-American theologies and
methods of revivalism and culture, essentially Reformed and
dispensational. Among Covenant leaders was a distinctive articula­tion
of an emerging Swedish-American consciousness as an ethnic
group, and a concern for institutional completeness, sensitive to the
intergenerational challenges of immigrant life, not sectarian but
rooted in the inheritances of the Old and New worlds. It is
especially interesting that the clashing of rhetorical traditions
between Congregationalists and Covenanters was partly based on
invented histories, celebrating the Anglo-American destiny
through colonial Puritanism, and the Swedish-American con­sciousness
through Viking history and a retention of Scandinavian
language and culture.
To adopt language from family systems theory, on matters of
ethnicity David Nyvall was a highly "differentiated" leader within
the Covenant, meaning "the capacity of a family member to define
his or her own life's goals and values apart from surrounding
togetherness pressures, to say T when others are demanding 'you'
and 'we.'" It means "the capacity to be an T while remaining
connected" to the larger group, to be a non-anxious presence in the
226
midst of anxious systems.56 In ethnic terms, the leadership of
Risberg among the Congregationalists and Princell among the Free
was far less differentiated because the emphasis was more strongly
on Americanization and less on generational ethnicity.
Another way to look at this would be to use John Higham's
leadership types.57 According to Higham, "leaders focus the
consciousness of an ethnic group and in doing so make its identity
visible." Of the three types of leader (received, internal, and
progressive), the Mission Friend movement in general was too new
and varied to produce "received" leaders, where one made
traditional claims upon the group. Nyvall probably came closest to
this. Rather, the voluntary nature of these groups meant that
leaders were either "internal," who arose from within the group,
remained there, and addressed the external world as its representa­tive
and advocate; or they were "projective," who came from the
group but acquired a following outside the group, thus affecting its
reputation without being directly subject to its control. Though
Risberg gave much of his energy to free Scandinavian causes across
the spectrum (thus appearing as an "internal" leader), his role at
CTS and his views of Americanization made him symbolically a
"projective" leader among Swedish Americans. Nyvall, on the
contrary, was firmly an "internal" leader, necessary to self-conscious
and self-activating bodies because these leaders helped
build psychological and economic security. The role of the
Covenant and North Park in the merger discussions was consistent
with this pattern. Had Risberg been more aggressive and activistic
as a leader, this advocate of American unity perhaps could have
built more of the bridges he symbolically represented.
The entire story is a test case of generational themes. Princell's
school, today's Trinity College and Evangelical Divinity School
(affiliated with the merger of the Swedish and Danish-Norwegian
Free churches in 1950), has no conscious tie to an ethnic heritage.
Risberg's school at CTS closed when he retired in 1916, and
Swedish Congregationalism ceased all official forms by 1921. But
North Park, according to Nyvall, "was built right, and [withstood,
therefore, the test of the storm."6 8 It survived without him, and
throughout its history has seriously addressed issues of denomina­tional
identity and Swedish-American culture and consciousness
in its urban and richly multiethnic setting.
227
NOTES
'Rudolph J. Vecoli, "Ethnicity: A Neglected Dimension of American History," in
Herbert J. Bass, ed., The S t a t e of A m e r i c a n H i s t o r y (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1970), esp.
70ff; Martin E. Marty, "Ethnicity: The Skeleton of Religion in America," Church
H i s t o r y 41 (1972), 9.
2Martin E. Marty, M o d e m A m e r i c a n R e l i g i o n , Volume 2: The N o i s e of Conflict, 1919-1941
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 2.
3George M. Stephenson, The R e l i g i o u s Aspects of S w e d i s h I m m i g r a t i o n : A S t u d y of
I m m i g r a n t Churches (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1932), p a s s i m.
4For the Scandinavian departments at Chicago Theological Seminary, see Robert M .
Anderson, " A n Analysis of Congregational Aid to Scandinavian Churches," B.D.
thesis, North Park Theological Seminary, 1960; P. Richard Lindstrom, "The Risberg
School," B.D. thesis, North Park Theological Seminary, 1966; Frederick Hale, "The
Scandinavian Departments of Chicago Theological Seminary," M.A. thesis, Univer­sity
of Minnesota, 1974; and Hale, T r a n s - A t l a n t i c C o n s e r v a t i v e Protestantism in t he
E v a n g e l i c a l Free and M i s s i o n C o v e n a n t Traditions (New York: Arno Press, 1979), chaps.
9-10.
5P. P. Waldenström, B r u k s p a t r o n A d a m s s o n . E l l e r h v a r bor du? (Stockholm, 1863). The
novel was first published serially in Stadsmissionären (The City Missionary) in
Stockholm. This was translated into English in 1928 to support Swedish-American
fundamentalists in their heresy charges directed against Nils Lund, dean of North
Park Theological Seminary, for his alleged modernism (Squire A d a m s s o n : Or, W h e re
Do You L i v e ? , Ruben T. Nygren, trans. [Chicago: Mission Friend Publishing
Company, 1928]). Most Mission Friends missed the irony in Waldenström's
hyperbolic allegory, who was a Ph.D. in classics from Uppsala University.
"Though many Mission Friend pastors had attended training schools in Sweden,
most shared the judgment that "the pioneers were uneducated men and women.
They did not consider an education essential to a successful career in the ministry.
Most of them were self-made men, gifted and useful in that early generation" (A. H .
Jacobson, The A d v e n t u r e s of a P r a i r i e Preacher [Chicago: Covenant Press, 1960], 34).
'C. J. Nyvall, Travel M e m o r i e s f r o m A m e r i c a (Chicago: Covenant Press, 1959), 54f.
'Missions-Vännen, Feb. 1880, 47f. For a discussion of this theme, see Richard
Hofstadter, A n t i - I n t e l l e c t u a l i s m i n A m e r i c a n Life (New York: Vantage Books, 1962).
"See C. V. Bowman, "Ansgarius College," S w e d i s h - A m e r i c a n Historical Bulletin 2
(1929), 19-30.
1 "Quoted in Stephenson, R e l i g i o u s Aspects of S w e d i s h I m m i g r a t i o n , 162f.
" H . M. Scott, A M i n i s t r y for Foreign Bom A m e r i c a (Hartford, Conn.: Hartford
Seminary Press, 1907), 46. For a history of the American Home Missionary Society,
see C. B. Goodykoontz, H o m e M i s s i o n s on t h e A m e r i c a n F r o n t i e r : With P a r t i c u l ar
Reference to t h e A m e r i c a n H o m e M i s s i o n a r y Society (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers,
1939). The Scandinavian work receives no attention in this study.
"Quoted in Matthew Spinka, ed., A H i s t o r y of I l l i n o i s C o n g r e g a t i o n a l and C h r i s t i an
Churches (Chicago: Congregational and Christian Conference of Illinois, 1944), 284.
"The Home M i s s i o n a r y 51 (Dec. 1878), 187.
"Quoted in A. C. McGiffert, N o I v o r y Tower: The S t o r y of t h e C h i c a g o Theological
S e m i n a r y (Chicago: Chicago Theological Seminary, 1965), 59.
"This rhetorical tradition is developed in Hale, "Scandinavian Departments," esp.
62ff. Future problems were anticipated in 1884, however, when the Congregational
Club of Minnesota held a symposium entitled "Norwegians, Swedes, and Their
Denominations," where the speakers Sven Oftedal, professor at Augsburg
Seminary, and George Wiberg, Ansgar Synod pastor from Worcester, Massachusetts
(who became a staunch ally to the work of Risberg at CTS and was employed by the
AHMS), predicted inevitable conflict over doctrinal issues.
228
16For the crucial role of Montgomery, see Hale, Trans-Atlantic Conservative Protestant­ism,
215-55.
" M . W. Montgomery, speech to the Congregational Association of Minnesota,
reported in T h e P i l g r i m (Oct. 1885). This was a defense of Protestant America against
foreign perils ennumerated by Josiah Strong and the Evangelical Alliance. See
Robert T. Handy, A C h r i s t i a n A m e r i c a : Protestant Hopes a n d Historical Realities (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1984), esp. 57-81. On Scandinavians as "second-class
WASPs," see Charles H. Anderson, White Protestant A m e r i c a n s : F r o m National O r i g i ns
to Religious Group (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971), 43ff.
1 8M. W. Montgomery, "The Free Church Movement in Sweden," T h e A n d o v e r Review
2 (1884), 411.
1 9M. W. Montgomery, " A Wind F r o m the H o l y S p i r i t " in S w e d e n a n d N o r w a y (New
York: American Home Missionary Society, 1884), 6f. Montgomery wildly estimated
that half the population of Sweden was Lutheran while the rest were oriented
toward the free churches; in fact, approximately 300,000 were part of the Mission
Friend movement.
' " M i n u t e s of t h e Tenth Triennial C o n v e n t i o n H e l d i n Chicago, A p r i l 2 2 , 1 8 8 5 , in C o n n e c t i on
with the C h i c a g o Theological Seminary (Chicago, 1885).
2 ,"The Report of Professor H. M. Scott to the Triennial Convention of the Chicago
Theological Seminary, April 22, 1885," in Lindström, "The Risberg School," 97.
Lindstrom prints this most interesting status report in its entirety as an appendix
(85-97), outlining the origins and work of each foreign department at CTS.
Montgomery gave three reasons for the ambivalence of Mission Friends toward
education: "(1) the deeply religious nature of the Scandinavians, which cares more
for religion than culture; (2) the prejudice among these Free Church people against
education, which has grown out of the unspiritual teachings and the harsh
persecutions of the Lutheran State Church preachers, who are all educated; and (3)
the revival prevailing among them makes them feel that the gospel messenger must
not wait for the slow processes of a thorough education. Hence these young men are
willing to overleap the college, and sometimes even the academy, and flock to the
theological school," not nearly as prepared as American students (M. W.
Montgomery, T h e Work A m o n g the S c a n d i n a v i a n s , I n c l u d i n g the Swedes, Danes, and
N o r w e g i a n s [New York: American Home Missionary Society, 1888], 11).
"There is little biographical information on Risberg apart from his brief autobio­graphy
Strödda m i n n e n från mitt flydda liv (Chicago: Missions-Vännen Bokförlag,
1916). His personal papers are not extant.
" O . C. Grauer, F r e d r i c k F r a n s o n : F o u n d e r of t h e S c a n d i n a v i a n A l l i a n c e M i s s i o n (Chicago:
Scandinavian Alliance Mission, n.d.), 36.
"Fridolf Risberg, Afskedspredikan på tredje söndagen efter påsk den 30 A p r i l 1882
(Härnösand, 1883), as quoted by Karl A. Olsson, B y O n e Spirit (Chicago: Covenant
Press, 1962), 734.
"McGiffert, N o I v o r y Tower, 66. For a listing of the students, chronological and
alphabetical, see Lindstrom, "The Risberg School," 128-67. Risberg gave his own
analysis of the students, Strödda m i n n e n , 132f. The board of CTS followed the
following criteria in calling Risberg: (1) spiritual, doctrinally sound, inspiring
confidence; (2) some knowledge of English; (3) skill in practical theology; (4) ability
to teach Swedish homiletics and church history; and (5) a good preacher and
example of godliness to the students. Covenant Yearbook (1885), 14f.
26John H. Morley, "Charge to Professor Fridolph Rissberg [sic]," TS, Chicago
Theological Seminary Library, 3, as quoted by Hale, "Scandinavian Departments,"
99.
"Quoted in M. W. Montgomery, "Scandinavian Department," T h e H o m e M i s s i o n a r y
65 (1892), 70.
229
2BFor Nyvall as educator, see Philip J. Anderson, "David Nyvall and Swedish-
American Education," in Philip J. Anderson and Dag Blanck, eds., S w e d i s h - A m e r i c an
Life i n C h i c a g o : C u l t u r a l a n d U r b a n Aspects of a n I m m i g r a n t People, 1 8 5 0 - 1 9 3 0 (Urbana
and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991).
2 9David Nyvall, "Dreams That Came True," Cupola (North Park College Yearbook),
1923, 33.
"Interview with Joel Fridfelt by P. Richard Anderson, May 1966, in Lindstrom, "The
Risberg School," 55f.
3'Nyvall, "Dreams That Came True," 33.
3 2David Nyvall, T h e S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s : A H i s t o r y (Chicago: Covenant Book
Concern, 1930), 72ff. In this book, Nyvall commented extensively on his relationship
to Risberg, whose character and teaching abilities he deeply admired. Nyvall
described Risberg's generational views (75):
He was a staunch believer in the prompt Americanization of the Swedish
Mission Friends and he used to say that he was certain of two things, and
somewhat uncertain as to a third. He was sure that the Mission Friends of the
first generation would never consent to any scheme of Americanization. He
was equally sure that the third generation of the Mission Friends would be
Americanized as a matter of course. He was not sure whether the Americani­zation
would take effect already in the second generation. With this opinion as
to the future it is natural that he could not take a very enthusiastic view of the
Covenant plan.
For a recent study of generational theory, see Peter Kivisto and Dag Blanck, eds.,
A m e r i c a n I m m i g r a n t s a n d T h e i r G e n e r a t i o n s : S t u d i e s a n d C o m m e n t a r i e s on t h e H a n s en
T h e s i s after Fifty Years (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990).
"Half of Peterson's $1,000 salary was paid by the Covenant, half by CTS. When the
Covenant school was established in Minneapolis in 1891, the Covenant withdrew its
funding and Peterson's earnings were augmented out of Risberg's own pocket.
"P. C. Trandberg, D e l i v e r a n c e from Babylon and Its Foreshadowings (Chicago: N. O.
Moore, 1888), 4If.
"For a discussion of the Trandberg controversy, see Hale, "Scandinavian Depart­ments,"
108-111.
3 6M. W. Montgomery, The P i l g r i m (Oct. 1886), as quoted by Hale, Transatlantic
C o n s e r v a t i v e Protestantism, 233.
" M i n u t e s of t h e National Council (1889), 175f., 276, as quoted by Hale, ibid.
'"Reports of t h e A m e r i c a n H o m e M i s s i o n a r y Society, 64th Report (New York: American
Home Missionary Society, 1890), 61ff.
"Missions-Vännen, Jan. 22, 1890; Jan. 29, 1890.
4 0M. W. Montgomery, "Our Scandinavian Brethren," T h e A d v a n c e , Jan. 23,1890, 68.
4 ,H. M. Scott to M . W. Montgomery, June 16, 1890, as quoted by Lindstrom, "The
Risberg School," 21.
42J. B. Clark to M. W. Montgomery, n.d., as quoted by Anderson, "Analysis of
Congregational A i d , " 35.
"For an extensive description of these 106 churches, see the sympathetic history by
A. P. Nelson, S v e n s k a Missionsvännernas historia i A m e r i k a (Minneapolis: published by
the author, 1906). In an attempt to show the common history of Mission Friends
with English and American Congregationalism (to merge the rhetorical traditions),
Nelson had written P u r i t a n e r n a s och P i l g r i m e r n a s historia (Boston: Pilgrim Press,
1901). If Risberg had had Nelson's promotional energy, the history of Swedish
Congregationalism might have been quite different.
44For a discussion of Congregational work in the EMA, see Paul A. Day, U n i t y and
F r e e d o m : O n e H u n d r e d Years of t h e East Coast Conference of t h e Evangelical Covenant
C h u r c h (n.p.: East Coast Conference, 1990). For the Northwest, see Philip J.
Anderson, A P r e c i o u s H e r i t a g e : A C e n t u r y of M i s s i o n in t h e N o r t h w e s t , 1 8 8 4 - 1 9 84
230
(Minneapolis: Northwest Conference, 1984); and "Protokollbok för svenska kongre¬
gational predikantföreningen i nordvestern," 1898-1918, MS, Covenant Archives
and Historical Library, Chicago.
"Ironically, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission was organized in the Swedish
Tabernacle in Minneapolis, the very place and in the same year that the Covenant
school had its home, demonstrating the fluid lines of division among Mission
Friends. I am indebted to Vernon Mortenson for permitting me to see a draft of his
forthcoming centennial history of The Evangelical Alliance Mission. Cf. also
Josephine Princell, ed., A l l i a n s m i s s i o n e n s tjugufemårsminnen (Chicago: Skandinaviska
Alliansmissionen, 1916); and Frederick Hale, "Norwegians, Danes, and the Origins
of the Evangelical Free Tradition," N o r w e g i a n - A m e r i c a n S t u d i e s 29 (Northfield:
Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1979), 82-108.
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 78. Risberg wrote: "There were never two persons
more unlike each other than Franson and myself, but for many years we knew each
other and worked together for the Mission, [and] we never had an unkind word
between us" (quoted in J. F. Swanson, ed., T h r e e Score Years . . . a n d T h e n : S i x t y Years
of Worldwide M i s s i o n a r y A d v a n c e [Chicago: The Evangelical Alliance Mission (1951),
446]).
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 76. The Danish-Norwegian free churches opened a
seminary in Rushford, Minnesota, in 1909, with the cooperation of CTS. It moved to
Minneapolis in 1916.
4 8H. M. Scott and S. I. Curtiss to David Nyvall, Feb. 11, 1902, David Nyvall Papers,
Covenant Archives and Historical Library, Chicago.
4 9H. M. Scott to E. G. Hjerpe, April 26, 1907, Covenant Archives and Historical
Library, Chicago.
50"Risberg's School: North Park Seminary Correspondence on Union 1910-1911,"
MS, Covenant Archives and Historical Library, Chicago. For example, it was agreed
to publish a directory of associated ministers, congregations, and mission organiza­tions
to be of value especially to new immigrants and those moving to other places.
The Covenant and Congregationalists complied, the Free did not.
5 1 Algoth Ohlson to Oscar E. Olson, Dec. 9, 1959, Covenant Archives and Historical
Library, Chicago.
"Josephine Princell, J. G . P r i n c e l l s l e v n a d s m i n n e n (Chicago: J. V. Martensons Tryckeri,
1916), 265.
"Chicago Swedish Mission Ministers to O. S. Davis, Mar. 27, 1911, Covenant
Archives and Historical Library, Chicago.
" O . S. Davis to E. G. Hjerpe, May 11, 1911, Covenant Archives and Historical
library, Chicago.
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 76.
5 6Edwin H. Friedman, G e n e r a t i o n to G e n e r a t i o n : Family Progress in C h u r c h a n d
S y n a g o g u e (New York: Guilford Press, 1985), 27. See also Michael E. Kerr and Murray
Bowen, Family E v a l u a t i o n : A n A p p r o a c h Based on Bowen Theory (New York: Norton,
1988).
"John Higham, "Leadership," in Michael Walzer, et al, T h e Politics of E t h n i c i t y
(Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1982), 69-91.
"Nyvall, S w e d i s h C o v e n a n t e r s , 77.
231